Levels of micro-plastics are rising across the Mediterranean Sea, new study shows

Levels of microplastics are rising across the Mediterranean Sea, according to marine biologists who have spent six years studying the scale of the problem.

Euronews reports that a lot of plastic waste that ends up in the sea is eroded down into microplastics and eaten by smaller fish, which in turn enter the human food chain. New evidence also showed the extent of climate change, specifically with the discovery of a tropical algae in the Egadi Islands, west of Sicily.

According to the report alarming results from plankton samples are related to data which comes from Project Mediterranean — a floating laboratory that has been touring the waters to build a picture of the extent of pollution. It found large amounts of garbage on the seabed, mainly in areas where the currents form vortices.

Professor Adriano Madonna said that “the production of plastic in the world increases of nine percent every year.” Madonna is a leading marine biologist at the University of Naples.

“When it is possible, let’s go back to glass, let’s go back to glass, which can be recycled.”

Via Euronews