Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Microplastics in Deep-Sea Stomachs: Study Finds Plastic Eaten by Fish and Crustaceans Increases With Depth in The Gulf of Mexico
Microplastics in Deep-Sea Stomachs: Study Finds Plastic Eaten by Fish and Crustaceans Increases With Depth in The Gulf of Mexico
Microplastics in Deep-Sea Stomachs: Study Finds Plastic Eaten by Fish and Crustaceans Increases With Depth in The Gulf of Mexico
An official website of the United States government. Here's how you know we're official.
Menu
By Hannah Brown
Below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, up to 5,000 feet deep, as light fades into
dark ocean waters, tiny particles of plastic rain down, showering the water column
and settling in sediments on the ocean floor.
1 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
Small fish and crustaceans dine on these microplastics, which are often slathered
Menu
in colonies of bacteria. And in a surprising twist: the deeper they live,
the more
plastic these tiny animals eat.
These are the results of a paper recently published in the journal of “Limnology
and Oceanography.” The study was conducted as part of the DEEPEND deepwater
survey of fish and other marine organisms, which was funded by the NOAA
RESTORE Science Program in 2019.
2 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
But while it’s clear that microplastic particles are prevalent across the world’s
oceans, researchers have many questions on how animals in the deep ocean Menu
interact with them.
Ryan Bos, the lead author of the microplastic ingestion study, first developed an
appreciation for aquatic life as a young boy boating with his father and brother in
the lakes of Illinois.
“As we started to leave the dock on this boat, I would see this beautiful underwater
landscape. And as you go deeper, it starts to fade from view, “ Bos said. “I always
wondered what else could be down there, and it really sparked this curiosity in me.
Not surprisingly, I was drawn towards doing deep-sea research.”
Bos went on to earn a master’s degree from Nova Southeastern University and a
doctorate from Florida Atlantic University. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at
Harvard University continuing his work on microplastics in marine environments.
“We just don’t know where it’s all going,” Bos said. “In fact, 99% of all plastics that
have ever been manufactured are currently unaccounted for, which is partly the
inspiration for doing this microplastic ingestion study, as midwater biomass
[organisms in the mid-ocean] may be a temporary reservoir for plastic pollution.”
Beginning in 2015, Bos joined DEEPEND deepwater cruises in the Gulf of Mexico
with the goal of better understanding microplastic ingestion in the fish and
crustaceans of the deep Gulf. Bos and his team collected 557 organisms from 35
different species, some of which came from a research cruise that surveys the
North Atlantic Ocean. As they collected each specimen, they took note of the depth
they were found, from 0 to 5,000 feet deep.
3 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
Menu
The stomach contents of each organism were processed and assessed for the
extent of plastic ingestion, and then a portion of plastic particles were chemically
analyzed to see what kinds of plastics were being devoured.
Bos and his team found that 29% of crustaceans and 26% of fish collected had
eaten at least one microplastic particle. Fish and crustaceans that stay put in
deeper parts of the ocean without migrating up to shallower depths had ingested
more microplastics than organisms collected at shallower depths. This was
particularly true for animals collected from 4,000 to 5,000 feet deep.
“It’s really alarming to think that these non-migratory organisms, that are thought
to remain relatively quiescent [inactive] at depth for their entire life, are being
exposed to plastic,” Bos said.
4 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
The primary types of microplastics found in their stomachs were small fragments
Menu
of cellophane, or clear plastic film often used in food and cosmetic packaging, and
fibers that likely derived from ship paint resin. They also found that the
crustaceans were more likely to eat fibers, while the fish more often ate
fragments.
The animals in Bos’ study were likely scavenging plastic flakes from marine snow in
the water column – the crustaceans in particular were especially adept at this.
Some studies suggest that animals may be attracted to oxidized plastic particles,
seeking them out after they have been weathered and colonized by bacteria and
other microorganisms.
The photos above show examples of microbial communities living on the surface of
plastics, which may trigger some animals to misidentify plastic particles as living
5 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
Once microplastics have been consumed, it’s not clear exactly how the presence of
plastic inside animal bodies affects their health, especially in the small deepwater
animals Bos studied. But previous research on larger species has found evidence of
a myriad of health impacts from ingesting microplastics, including reduced
swimming speed, impaired reproduction rates, increased stress levels, reduced
absorption of nutrients, and death.
“It can cause physical damage. Eating plastic fragments with sharp edges or points
to it can tear tissue,” said Amy V. Uhrin, chief scientist for NOAA’s Marine Debris
Program.
On top of the physical damage, researchers are also concerned about chemical
contamination from ingesting plastics.
“Plastics are infused with a lot of different chemicals for different reasons: to give
them colors, make them rigid, make them more pliable, to serve as flame
retardants,” Uhrin said. “But when plastics get into the environment, there are also
persistent organic pollutants that can adhere or adsorb to the surface of the
plastic. So then you have this sort of chemical cocktail that can also enter the
animal after it’s ingested.”
Uhrin said that studying the impacts of these chemicals is incredibly challenging
because their composition varies so widely. “Some of those chemicals are
proprietary, so you don’t really know what’s in there,” she said.
Though there are only a handful of studies assessing microplastic impacts on the
ocean’s food webs, it’s likely that these plastic particles build up in larger organisms
as well – both from eating smaller organisms that have consumed plastic and from
directly ingesting it themselves.
“It’s highly likely that there’s biomagnification of plastic that’s occurring in the food
web, ” Bos said. “For organisms that are predating on lanternfishes, for example, if
there’s 26% of lanternfishes in our study ingesting plastic, you’d have to imagine
that at least once one of these animals could be consumed by a larger pelagic
[open ocean] organism, and plastic could be passed up the food web.”
6 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
This question of how microplastics could potentially impact food webs and the
surrounding environment is of special interest to the natural resource managers
who are tasked with making decisions on how marine species and their habitats
are managed.
Ebenezer Nyadjro is a physical and satellite oceanographer who works with NOAA’s
National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) to create a database of
existing datasets documenting microplastics in the world’s oceans. Nyadjro and his
team also created a Marine Microplastics Map Viewer to visualize the massive
amounts of data they have collected.
“We currently have about 37 datasets made up of about 14,000 data points,”
Nyadjro said.
NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information has created a database of existing datasets
documenting microplastics in the world’s oceans. Click here to view the Marine Microplastics Map Viewer.
7 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
“The updates we are going to do is going to move it from one map layer to five,”
Menu
Nyadjro said.
“There are people that are looking for data to do applied things like manage the
environment, manage natural resource areas, and these are data that are
becoming increasingly important to them,” Webster said. “It’s a growing problem. I
think that the data that we’re collecting now will give those environmental
managers a starting point of knowing whether or not microplastics have been
found in their area.”
“The issue of plastics crosses so many different scientific disciplines and requires a
lot of interdisciplinary work that it just becomes very complicated,” Uhrin said.
8 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
Menu
The amount of macro and microplastics entering global aquatic ecosystems each year is expected to more
than double by 2040 if no changes are implemented on how we produce, use, and dispose of plastic,
according to a report by the PEW Charitable Trusts. Photo by Ben Mierement, NOAA NOS
In recent years, Uhrin has seen advances in research examining how plastic
impacts marine animals. She sees researchers beginning to consider population-
level impacts, as well as how microplastics affect multiple species in an ecosystem
instead of just one individual at a time.
“You have to scale that up because we’re not managing for a single fish or a crab,
we’re managing the whole population,” Uhrin said.
She still sees opportunity for improvement with microplastic research, however,
especially in the types and concentrations of microplastics that animals in the lab
are exposed to – previous studies have tended to “superdose” lab specimens with
concentrations of plastic that are not representative of what would be found in
natural habitats.
9 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
For him the key questions are still: Where does all the plastic ultimately go? Do
smaller plastics remain suspended in the open ocean for long time periods, or do
they all end up getting buried in sediments on the ocean floor? And if so, how do
they get there?
General Information
GOMCON 2024 Session Proposals Due July 28
Announcing our new Communications and Engagement Strategy
Related Organizations
USA.gov
Department of Commerce
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Ocean Service
Informational Links
Freedom of Information Act
Information Quality
Privacy Policy
Website Disclaimer
Survey
Recent Announcements
Next Funding Opportunity: Long-Term Trends in the Gulf of Mexico Ecosystem December
10 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46
Microplastics in deep-sea stomachs: Study finds plastic eaten by fish an... https://restoreactscienceprogram.noaa.gov/miscellaneous/microplastics-...
18, 2023
Menu
Not on our Email List? Join Now!
Subscribe
2024 ©NOAA RESTORE Science Program | Website Owner: National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science
11 of 11 19/01/2024, 16:46