Ocean garbage found in fish for sale in California

The authors theorize that fibers remaining in sewage effluent from washing machines were ingested by fish sampled in the state.

Anthropogenic debris was found in 25 percent of individual fish and 67 percent of all species sampled from Half Moon Bay and Princeton in California.

However, while that fish at your local market may seem like a top-tier food, it may not always be the best choice – at least according to a new study conducted by University of California, Davis, and Hasanuddin University in Indonesia.

Our manmade pollution is being eaten by fish, which are being eaten by us, creating a sad, karmic circle of garbage. However, while there wasn’t a significant difference between the amount of garbage between the two locations, there was an interesting variation in the types debris found. The team had also examined fish from Indonesia and discovered that they had only plastic in their bellies and there were no synthetic fibers. But in California, only 20 percent of debris was identified as plastic trash.

Anthropogenic-or manmade-ocean pollution ranges from plastic bags to bottles to cans to general junk, but in this case the researchers found plastic in the Indonesian population and plastic and textile fibers in the American one.

In Indonesia, residents rely heavily on bottled water due to the lack of purified drinking water in the country.

“We think the type of debris in the fish is driven by differences in local waste management”, she added.

“Indonesia has some of the highest marine life richness and biodiversity on Earth, and its coastal regions – mangroves, coral reefs and their beaches – are just awash in debris”, said co-author Susan Williams, a professor with the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory who has worked on projects in Indonesia for the past several years. In Indonesia this is common practice. Bad filtering causes some of these fibers to end up in fish. Scientists aren’t yet sure. They found that in both groups, roughly one quarter had anthropogenic debris in their guts.

Chelsea Rochman is with the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and is the study’s lead author.

Crom stated that the results of the findings won’t prevent him from consuming fish, and the research team stated that he shouldn’t since the health benefits of eating fish usually prevails.