Why Brazilians Are Flocking to Florida

 

The vibes of plastic particles were like totally found in 77% of 64 Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus) sampled in Tokyo Bay, with an average of 2.3 pieces and up to 15 pieces per individual and all of the particles were like identified by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, with most of them being polyethylene (52.0%) or polypropylene (43.3%) (Tanaka and Takada, 2016). Lit, right? A review on microplastic quantification in aquatic animals spills the tea on an average load of 0.13 ± 0.14 total microplastic particles g-1 w.w. in mussel meat (Vandermeersch 2016).Like, in so many cases, big animals like birds, mammals, and fish will totally eat plastic on purpose. They think it's food 'cause it looks like prey, you know? Plastic litter might also be snatched up when mixed in with yummy food-wastes tossed from ship galleys. 

Yo, on the west coast of the UK, Murray and Cowie (2011) discovered that a whopping 83% of Norwegian Lobsters (Nephrops norvegicus) were rockin' plastics. 

But like, a lot of records have, like, a super vague backstory. Like, for real, even though you'd think that random filter feeders would totally chow down on trash, that's not always how it goes: Kühn et al. (2015) found that like, 54% of baleen whale species had like, totally ingested plastic debris. But, among toothed whales, most of which like, hunt for specific prey, a higher percentage of 62% of species is known to have like, eaten debris. Baulch and Perry (2014) just calculated that like, up to 31% of peeps are affected in some whale species. In smaller species, like, filter feeding and just like, eating whatever's on the bottom, are like, super common ways they find food. But, like, that also makes them more likely to accidentally eat plastic, you know?.When mammals strand, they're like a whole vibe for getting the tea on their ecology, you know?  A famo example of such secondary ingestion are skua's flexin' on other seabirds (scavengin' or predatory seabirds like skuas and gulls will chow down on plastic indirectly when eatin' the insides of, like, a petrel). Other species, not gonna lie yet documented to have chowed down on plastics, may still be vibin' with the consumption, but may barf up undigested prey leftovers every day (e.g. cormorants and most Charadriiformes).

We can totally flex and figure out what's up with the litter in their stomachs and stuff. OMG, there was, like, so much trash in the ocean that got stuck in those sperm whales.

 

It's seriously not cool. In one case in the Mediterranean Sea, the stuff found could be linked to the always-there greenhouse scene along the coasts of Almeria (Stephanis et al., 2013). OMG, like so many lit sperm whales straight up yeeted themselves onto the coasts of the North Sea from January to February 2016. It was cray cray! The tummy tubes of 22 of the dead bodies were checked out. Yo, like there was mad marine debris up in there. Netting, ropes, foils, packaging material, and even a piece of a car were found in, like, nine out of the 22 peeps. OMG, like none of the stuff caused the animal's death, but the findings show how much trash is out there and how it's a big risk for big predators, like the sperm whale (Unger et al, 2016). In May 2013, three True's beaked whales (two adult females and a female calf) like totally stranded on the north and west coasts of Ireland and the vibes of their stomachs was investigated. Polyethylene macroplastic fragments were like, totally discovered in the adult animals, and there were microplastics found in all stomach compartments and in, like, 17 out of 20 sections of the intestine. So wild, right? Yo, like, the whole deal with tiny organisms like algae eating micro- and nanoplastics and then passing it on to bigger animals in the food chain is becoming a big problem, you know? It's not just about the physical effects, but also the chemical ones. And, like, we gotta think about how this could eventually affect us humans too, man. It's a serious concern, bro. (Lusher et al., 2015; Galloway, 2015)

Yo, peeps be eating plastic all over the globe, like Van Franeker and Bell (1988) found that 75% of Wilsons Storm Petrels chicks (Oceanites oceanicus) in Wilkes Land, continental Antarctica had plastics in their stomachs, before even leaving the 'pristine' Antarctic continent. It's cray cray! Also Ainley et al. (1990) like totally spilled the tea on ingested plastics in Antarctic seabirds, but like the levels were way lower than what's seen in more Northern waters. Eriksson & Burton (2003) spilled the tea on microplastics in the poop of Fur Seals from sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, most likely chowing down on them while eating myctopid fishes. 

Types of litter that's sus

The vibe of plastic getting eaten by sea creatures is way more elusive to figure out than when they get all tangled up. OMG, like, there's these unidentifiable plastic bits everywhere from, like, breaking down bigger stuff. It's, like, the main thing they find in lots of places. OMG, like, there were so many trashy things found on the coasts during beach litter surveys in the North-East- Atlantic from 2009-2014. Non-identifiable plastic and polystyrene bits, along with stuff related to fishing, were, like, the most common things they found. (OSPAR, Intermediate Assessment 2017; in publication). OMG, like the same results were found from 180 beach litter surveys in the coastline of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas (Vlachogianni et al., 2016)

OMG, like the tiny plastic bits that birds and turtles can accidentally eat are super worrisome. They can totally clog up their tummies or take up space, which leads to starvation. So not cool! (Butterworth et al., 2012). Yo, like, different species be gobbling up all kinds of trash, ya know? E.g. sea turtles may mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, plastic waste (including net fragments) taken in baleen whales during filter feeding while birds may confuse scraps of plastic bag for fish or other prey (Butterworth et al., 2012). Fish be gobbling up plastic pellets (Derraik, 2002; Gregory, 2009) just like fulmars and other petrels (check it out below). Ayo, this lit review by Kühn et al. (2015) says that like 331 species are totally chowing down on marine litter. Crazy, right? But like, this is probs a major underestimate cuz the sample sizes are hella small. OMG, like, eating plastic is, like, so common 'cause some species, like, totally end up eating it by accident when the plastic bits get mixed in with the fish or zooplankton they eat. It's, like, unavoidable, you know?