We can’t be sure exactly how long these plastic items were in the ocean before they washed up on the coastline, but judging by the number of barnacles it could be anywhere from a few months to a few years.
Barnacles like these are a favorite snack for a variety of sea animals. The only problem is that it’s believed they’re eating microscopic pieces of plastic called nanoplastics. (They’re even smaller than microplastics!) Plastics can absorb toxins from the surrounding environment. So when prey species ingest nanoplastics and microplastics, the toxins that the plastics have absorbed bioaccumulate (or build up) inside their living tissue.
When a predator eats their prey, they’re also absorbing all of the toxins that their prey has consumed. These toxins become more and more concentrated as they work their way up the food chain in a process scientists call biomagnification.
Humans consume some of the ocean’s top predators and aren’t immune to the impact plastics have on our food chain. Many of these toxins are pollutants that can cause health concerns.
#4ocean #CleanOceanMovement 📸: @tamano_tetsuya