The digestive tracts of most fish found in the waters around Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) contain plastic waste, a study has shown.
National Donghwa University marine biology professor Chen Te-hao (陳德豪) said that about 95 percent of fish in a study conducted around 117 coral formations near the township contained microplastic — plastic fragments 5mm in size or smaller.
There is an urgent need for the reduced use of plastics, Chen said, adding that the public is advised against eating fish offal.
In the study, all fish were found to have no fewer than five pieces of microplastic in their systems, with the bodies of larger mahi-mahi (also known as the common dolphinfish) containing as many as 32 pieces of plastic waste.
What concerned Chen most about the results was that even fish that normally live at depths of between 180m and 640m below the ocean’s surface were shown to have consumed plastic.
The study also looked at 21 turtles of different species, including green sea turtles, olive ridley sea turtles and hawksbill sea turtles, between December 2017 and November last year, and found that nearly all of them had consumed plastic, Chen said, adding that his research team is now looking at oysters.
Despite the discovery that plastic waste consumption among marine life is more pervasive than previously thought, the plastic is unlikely to pass through the food chain to humans unless people consume fish offal, Chen said.
Even if the plastic does not enter the human food chain, its impact on marine life is apparent, he said, adding that some get entangled in larger pieces of plastic, sometimes fatally.
“There are people recycling plastic and organizing beach cleanups nationwide, but this is a reactive response. We need to go to the source of the problem — to urgently reduce, even eliminate, the use of plastic,” he said.
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