WHY FISH MISTAKE PLASTIC DEBRIS IN SEA FOR FOOD?
Plastic starts to smell like food for fish after it has been in the sea, according to latest research. Over 50 species of fish are known to eat plastic and 700 marine species are exposed to it. Scientists tested the responses of anchovies to odour solutions made from plastic that had been left for three weeks in the sea compared to 'clean plastic'. The biofouled, but not the clean, plastic was found to 'stimulate a behavioural response consistent with foraging'.
"This is the first behavioural evidence that plastci may be chemically attractive to marine consumers", they wrote in the journal Proceedings in the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. They recommended research into the negative effects of plastic in the marine food chain.
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