According to research, blue whales consume up to 10 million pieces of microplastic every day, suggesting that pollution poses a bigger danger to the world's largest animal than previously thought.
The tiny pieces of plastic have been found all over the world.
A study in the journal Nature Communications estimates how much whales are consuming.
A US-led research team put tags on a bunch of whales that live off the coast of California.
The study's first author said it was similar to an Apple Watch on the back of a whale.
The greatest concentration of microplastics in the water column is found at depths of between 50 to 250 meters.
The researchers estimated the size and number of mouthfuls the whales had every day.
The blue whales may have eaten up to 10 million pieces of plastic a day.
More than a billion pieces are fed over the 90 to 120 day feeding season.
According to the study, the biggest animal ever to live on Earth is likely to eat up to 96 pounds of plastic a day.
It will take up a lot of space to carry an extra 45 kilograms.
Humpback whales are known to eat four million pieces of food a day.
It's easy to imagine whales sucking in a lot of plastic as they pass through the ocean, but the researchers found that wasn't the case.
Most of the microplastics entered the whales because they were already inside them.
Kahane-Rapport said that humans eat that prey.
She added thatkrill is the basis of the food web.
According to previous research, if krill are in a tank with micro plastic, they will eat it.
Now that the researchers know how much microplastic is being eaten by whales, they want to figure out how much harm it is doing.
The poison is defined by the dose.
Agence France- Presse.
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