Plastic ‘nurdles’ stop sea urchins developing properly, study finds

Chemicals that leach out of plastic shown to cause fatal abnormalities, including gut developing outside body

Sea urchins raised in sea water with high levels of plastic pollution, including fragments collected from a Cornish surfing beach, die from developmental abnormalities, research shows.

Scientists placed fertilised urchin eggs in seawater with varying levels of plastic to compare the effects of newly made plastic pellets, or nurdles", with the impacts of high levels of fragments found washed up on Watergate Bay in Cornwall.