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Ninety-Nine Percent of the Ocean's Plastic Is Missing

Posted by samzenpus on from the In-his-plastic-house-at-R'lyeh-dead-Cthulhu-waits-dreaming dept.

sciencehabit writes Millions of tons. That's how much plastic should be floating in the world's oceans, given our ubiquitous use of the stuff. But a new study (abstract) finds that 99% of this plastic is missing. One disturbing possibility: Fish are eating it. If that's the case, "there is potential for this plastic to enter the global ocean food web," says Carlos Duarte, an oceanographer at the University of Western Australia, Crawley. "And we are part of this food web."

6 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Explains McDonalds Fish Sandwich Tasting Like Plas by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    tic.

  2. Re:One non-disturbing theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Most of it is stored in a cool dark place. You know, under all that other water.

  3. The only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned by netsavior · · Score: 3, Funny

    "It wanted plastic"
    George Carlin

  4. Re: One non-disturbing theory by gtall · · Score: 5, Funny

    prepackaged fish sticks?

  5. Re:Plastic is not _only_ plastic by St.Creed · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... a plastic is like a steak. It is definitely _not_ only a piece of beef, but also the sauce (which itself is made of the starchy gravy - which can be broken up to other more basic components, - the flavoring [salt, sugar, spices, and so on]), plus the added chemicals, such as the aromatics (which is largely benzene group) that were formed when that beef was put over the fire

    What are you *doing* to that poor steak??? With that much shit tacked onto it, you might as well eat fishsticks.

    --
    Therefore, by the (faulty) logic you're using, you're just a cow with a keyboard - osu-neko (2604)
  6. Re:One non-disturbing theory by pipingguy · · Score: 3, Funny

    "I can't speak to fresh water..."

    Yes you can, but it cannot speak to you...