Microplastics Permeate Seafood Across Southern Australia

upstart writes:

Microplastics permeate seafood across southern Australia:

Plastic rubbish is everywhere and now broken-down microplastics have been found in variable concentrations in blue mussels and water within the intertidal zone at some of southern Australia's most popular and more remote beaches.

Flinders University researchers warn that this means microplastics are now finding their way into human food supplies-including wild-caught and ocean-farmed fish and seafood sourced from the once pristine Southern Ocean and gulf waters of South Australia.

[...] Trillions of microplastic particles exist in the world's oceans, with the highest concentrations recently found in the shallow sea floor sediment off Naifaru in the Maldives (at 278 particles kg-1) and lowest reported in the surface waters of the Antarctic Southern Ocean (3.1 x 10-2 particles per m3).

For the first time, the new Flinders University study measured the presence of microplastics in South Australia's coastline, in areas important both for shipping, fishing and tourism, along with other industries and local communities.

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