Plastic Containers Are the Latest Threat to Coral Reefs

A new study shows that plastic waste generated during shipping is also killing corals. According to this study, when debris comes into contact with corals, their disease incidence increases from 4 to 89%.

Key Facts About Coral

The leading scientist Joleah Lamb, a doctoral student at Cornell University, said: "Plastic items often made of polypropylene, such as bottle caps and toothbrushes are good places to live. For many types of bacteria, this involves coral disease groups, causing it to be devastated globally called bleaching syndrome. ".

In this study, Lamb and her team surveyed 159 coral reefs in Indonesia, Australia, Myanmar and Thailand. They visually examine about 125,000 corals, check for coral reef tissue damage, and find that the greater the amount of waste plastic, the more evidence there is for coral disease in the ocean.

The appearance of plastic waste varies a lot, depending on the location. For example, in Australia, this figure is 0.4 waste plastic units / 100 square meters, while in Indonesia is 25.6 plastic units / 100 square meters. Scientists estimate that all about 11.1 billion plastic items are present on coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific region, within the next 7 years, this number will increase by 40%.

Professor Drew Harvell of Cornell University, the author of a study, said: "Our research shows that plastic pollution is killing corals. Our goal is to focus less on measuring the chanting is dying and finding a solution instead. ".

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