Krillions of plastic woes

ANTARCTIC krill appear to be making a major pollution problem worse, by breaking tiny plastic particles down even smaller, scientists have found.

Australian Antarctic Division krill biologist Rob King said the discovery, made at the division’s krill aquarium, suggested that krill could be helping plastic micro-particles (the remains of bags and other plastic rubbish washed into the ocean) to break down into potentially more dangerous nano-particles much faster than previously thought.

Mr King said plastic parti- cles could become an even bigger environmental problem if they were small enough to get past gills and gut linings and lodged inside the tissues of fish, birds and marine mammals.

He said nano-particles could also act as trojan horses for toxic chemicals, which clung like magnets.

“Then it can be passed up the food chain,’’ Mr King said.

He said unfortunately krill were accustomed to smashing up and digesting plankton with really tough shells, and now it had been confirmed that they were able to do the same to plastic particles “without noticing them”.

Antarctic Division krill biologist So Kawaguchi said the research suggested that other zooplankton with a similar digestive system to krill may also be able to fragment microplastics into nanoplastics.

“It’s a new pathway for microplastics to interact with the ecosystem, and we need to learn more about how microplastics interact with environment,” Dr Kawaguchi said.