Larval Fish are Eating Our Trash

by Jennifer Lynch, NIST and HPU CMDR, and Stephen Ward, HPU Communications

A new study on the Pacific Ocean’s floating trash indicates not only a significant accumulation of microplastics in the Hawaiian Islands, but also that larval fish are eating the debris. The research, conducted in partnership with Hawai‘i Pacific University’s Center for Marine Debris Research (CMDR), centered on waters off the Kona coastline of Hawai‘i island. The area is found to accumulate microplastic pollution at a rate higher than the North Pacific Garbage Patch itself, and the larval fish living in this nursery habitat are eating the trash that surrounds them. The findings were published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sampled surface waters near West Hawai‘i using plankton tows with the intention of learning about the larval fish community in…

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Hawaii Fishing News (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 2020

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