In North Carolina, scientists at Duke University found that corals are eating plastic, preferring it over other food like sand. They believe there is something in the plastic itself, one of any hundreds of chemical additives in plastic, that makes it so delicious for corals. The corals preferred eating the plastic over sand and preferred unfouled plastic over plastic covered in bacteria.
Before you think this is great news because maybe this will help take care of our ocean plastic pollution problem, think again. Some of the ingested plastic was still stuck in corals’ guts after 24 hours and could be dangerous and kill the corals as the plastic causes blockages and sends signals that they are full even though they have get no nutrients for energy from the plastic. The researchers hope that if they can find out what makes the plastic taste good to the corals, maybe they can find a way to intentionally make it taste horrible and thus, saving the corals from eating plastic that damages or kills itself.