When mermaids cry

Marine scientists from the University of Plymouth in the U.K. have been researching the effects of plastic waste in the world’s seas and oceans. Much of this plastic rubbish is not biodegradable, so it breaks down into small pellets called “mermaids’ tears” — and can linger in that form for hundreds of years.

The Plymouth team had first discovered mermaids’ tears in European waters in 2002, and they have now come across them on four other continents: the Americas, Australia, Africa and Antarctica. Besides the fact that the tiny pellets are impossible to clean up, the scientists have found that sea creatures at the bottom of the food chain—such as barnacles, lugworms and amphipods—are consuming these plastics on the seabed. According to Dr. Richard Thompson, who is leading the research:

These creatures are eaten by others along the food chain. It seems an inevitable consequence that [the plastic] will pass along the food chain. There is the possibility that chemicals could be transferred from plastics to marine organisms.

And guess who eats those other “marine organisms?” You!

The seriousness of the plastic threat to marine life, and consequently to human consumption, however, remains for other researchers to investigate. But whatever the outcome may be, it seems that plastics in our waters are here to stay.