Sea anemones ingest plastic microfibers

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Washington, DC—Tiny fragments of plastic in the ocean are consumed by sea anemones along with their food, and bleached anemones retain these microfibers longer than healthy ones, according to new research from Carnegie’s Manoela Romanó de Orte, Sophie Clowez, and Ken Caldeira.

Their work, published by Environmental Pollution, is the first-ever investigation of the interactions between plastic microfibers and sea anemones. Anemones are closely related to corals and can help scientists understand how coral reef ecosystems are affected by the millions of tons of plastic contaminating the world’s oceans.

One of the most-common types of plastics in the ocean are microfibers from washing synthetic clothing and from the breakdown of maritime equipment such as ropes and nets. Microfibers are found across all the world’s oceans and are beginning to appear in fish and shellfish consumed by humans.

“Plastic pollution is a serious and growing problem for our oceans and the animals that live in them,” Romanó de Orte said. “We wanted to understand how these long-lived contaminants are affecting fragile coral reef ecosystems. Plastics could be confused by the organisms for food and could also be carriers of other harmful contaminants. Since sea anemones are closely related to corals, we decided to study sea anemones in the laboratory to better understand effects of plastics on corals in the wild.”

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