How much plastic might fishes eat?

About 12,000 to 24,000 tons per year, for fish in the intermediate ocean depths of the North Pacific.

Floating plastic trash is common on all our shores.

A study of the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" found plastic waste in more than 9% of the stomachs of fish collected there.


According to a report in Science Daily, of the 141 fishes spanning 27 species dissected in the study, authors Peter Davison and Rebecca Asch found that 9.2% of the stomach contents of mid-water fishes contained plastic debris, primarily broken-down bits smaller than a human fingernail. The researchers say the majority of the stomach plastic pieces were so small their origin could not be determined.

"About nine percent of examined fishes contained plastic in their stomach. That is an underestimate of the true ingestion rate because a fish may regurgitate or pass a plastic item, or even die from eating it. We didn't measure those rates, so our nine percent figure is too low by an unknown amount," said Davison.

Based on their evidence, Davison and Asch estimate that fish in the intermediate ocean depths of the North Pacific ingest plastic at a rate of roughly 12,000- to 24,000 tons per year.

Full article also on wildsingapore news.