Research has shown that blue whales consume as much as 10 million microplastic pieces per day. This suggests that pollution is a greater threat to this world’s largest animal than previously believed.
These small pieces of plastic were found all over the world, from the deepest oceans up to the highest mountains and even within human blood and organs.
Get it now! Modeling studyPublished in the journal Nature CommunicationsEstimates of how much whales ingest have been made.
The US led research team placed tags on 191 blue, fin and humpback whales off the coast of California. This was to track their movements.
Shirel Kahane Raapport, a researcher at California State University Fullerton and the study’s first author, said, “It’s basically an Apple Watch, just the back of a Whale.”
Kahane-Rapport stated that the whales mainly ate at depths between 50 and 250 meters (165-820 feet), which is where there is the “greatest concentration” of microplastics in water column.
Researchers then estimated how many mouthfuls each whale consumed daily, and what was removed by filtering. They also modeled three scenarios.
The most probable scenario is that the blue whales consumed up to 10,000,000 microplastic pieces per day.
That’s more than a half a billion pieces over the course of the 90-120 day annual feeding season.
According to the study the largest animal to ever live on Earth was also the biggest consumer of plastics, with 43.6 kilograms (96 lb) per day.
“Imagine carrying around an extra 45 kilograms – yes, you’re a very big whale, but that will take up space,” Kahane-Rapport said.
It was estimated that Humpback whales ate around four million pieces per day.
Although it’s easy to imagine whales swallowing large amounts of microplastics while they swim through the ocean, researchers discovered that this was not true.
Instead, 99 percent were inside the prey of their prey and entered the whales.
Kahane-Rapport stated, “That’s concerning to us,” because humans eat this prey.
She said that anchovies, sardines and other fish are also eaten. “Krill is the foundation of the food web.”
Kahane-Rapport stated that previous research had shown that krill will eat microplastic if it is placed in a tank.
The researchers now know how much microplastic whales consume, and they plan to find out how harmful it is.
Kahane Raapport said, “The poison is determined by the dose.”
