Vasco Grilo🔸 comments on The number of seabirds and sea mammals killed by marine plastic pollution is quite small relative to the catch of fish

[Vasco Grilo🔸]

According to this section from Our World in Data:

• “Microplastic ingestion rarely causes mortality in any organisms. As such, ‘lethal concentration’ (LC) values which are often measured and reported for contaminants do not exist”. Update on 29 December 2023: Nathalie Gil pointed out some studies have concluded microplastics increase mortality.

• “There is increasing evidence that microplastic ingestion can affect the consumption of prey, leading to energy depletion, inhibited growth and fertility impacts”.

• “Evidence of impacts of reduced food consumption include” (the links below were also taken from the OWID article):

  • “Slower metabolic rate and survival in Asian green mussels” (see this).

  • “Reduced reproducibility and survival in copepods” (see this).

  • “Reduced growth and development of Daphnia” (see this).

  • “Reduced growth and development of langoustine” (see this).

  • “Reduced energy stores in shore crabs and lugworms” (see this and this).

However, it is worth noting that reduced food consumption tends to decrease the size of the fish population, which might be beneficial if fish have net negative lives.