Lobster Dieoffs Linked to Plastic Pollution, Including Bisphenol A

[Staff]

Lobster Dieoffs Linked to Plastic Pollution, Including Bisphenol A
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California
08.11.10

Lobster Dieoffs Linked to Plastic Pollution, Including Bisphenol A : TreeHugger
excerpt from above:

We know plastic pollution in the oceans is causing problems among marine life, including becoming a food source that is anything but nourishing. Plastic pieces are snapped up as food by birds, fish, turtles and other wildlife, only to eventually kill them -- as well as work farther up the food chain as larger animals eat smaller ones that have ingested plastics. But this is far from the only impact plastics are having on ocean wildlife. Even crustaceans are feeling the pain of foreign chemicals. Molecular biologist Hans Laufer, of the University of Connecticut, has discovered that waterborne chemicals leached from plastics and detergents seem to contribute to "shell disease," which has caused huge dieoffs among lobsters of Long Island Sound during the past ten years.

According to University of Connecticut, after three years and $3 million invested in a research initiative, Laufer found that chemicals such as bisphenol A (BPA) are interfering with growth hormones in young lobsters, slowing their molting patterns and changing their development, which then leads to deformations, susceptibility to disease, and for many, death. This seems to explain...

[Equilibrium]

Every time one of these plastic pollution articles comes up I wonder if we're doing anything about it. I don't read much of anything about what's being done to rid our oceans of the plastics. Lots of research... not much else it seems.

[Staff]

Widespread Floating Plastic Debris Found in the Western North Atlantic Ocean
ScienceDaily
Aug. 20, 2010

Widespread floating plastic debris found in the western North Atlantic Ocean
excerpt from above:

Despite growing awareness of the problem of plastic pollution in the world's oceans, little solid scientific information existed to illustrate the nature and scope of the issue. Now, a team of researchers from Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the University of Hawaii (UH) published a study of plastic marine debris based on data collected over 22 years by undergraduate students in the latest issue of the journal Science.

A previously undefined expanse of the western North Atlantic has been found to contain high concentrations of plastic debris, comparable to those observed in the region of the Pacific commonly referred to as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch...