In North Carolina, a Duke University study of plastic ingestion by corals suggests they are not mistaking it for prey like other marine animals are known to do. Visual cues, such as a resemblance to prey, don’t factor into the appeal, the researchers noted, because corals have no eyes.
The plastic just plain tastes good. “Corals in our experiments ate all types of plastics but preferred unfouled microplastics by a threefold difference over microplastics covered in bacteria,” said Austin S. Allen, a PhD student at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “This suggests the plastic itself contains something that makes it tasty.”
Microplastics, tiny pieces of weathered plastic less than 5 millimeters in diameter, began accumulating in the oceans four decades ago and are now ubiquitous in the marine environment. They pose a major threat to foraging sea animals, including many species of birds, turtles, fish, marine mammals and invertebrates.