Dr. Jenny Oakley is the associate director of research programs at the Environmental Institute of Houston at the University of Houston Clear Lake. Over the past three years, her team of researchers has collected and analyzed water and soil samples from Galveston Bay, looking for microplastics.
Previously, ABC13 introduced us to the term microplastic through plastic pellets, also known as nurdles. But it turns out, those plastic pellets are one of the larger forms of microplastic.
SEE PREVIOUS STORY: Plastic pellet pollution is in Galveston Bay and likely accidental, nonprofit says
Microplastics are defined as any plastic less than 5 millimeters in diameter. In fact, you can't see most microplastics with the naked eye. They are microscopic pieces of plastic known as fragments and fibers, the result of plastic breaking apart over time since plastic can never fully decompose or degrade over time. And it turns out, Dr. Oakley's team is the first to try to quantify the amount of plastic, especially microplastic, in Galveston Bay.
Researchers took samples in Galveston Bay at two separate times of the year as part of the study. And they say their first few findings are alarming.
"Preliminarily, we can say that the concentrations that we were seeing in our two events that we sampled are higher than what other groups have seen along the Gulf Coast," Dr. Oakley said.
She continued to note how every sample they took had at least one type of microplastic in it.
Diane Wilson, a former shrimp farmer who used to fish in Lavaca Bay, was able to point out the differences in plastic pollution at Sylvan Beach. She claims that more than just physical pieces of plastic are polluting area waterways, there are chemicals too. She pointed to a white powder floating at the top of the water, a residue of plastic. This means plastic pollution can seep into every part of Galveston Bay, and eventually into its marine life.
"When a critter interacts with those microplastics, they're exposed to not only just the physical piece of plastic in their digestive tract, but also these different toxins that can be associated with those microplastics," Dr. Oakley said.
Just this past July, the EPA released new plans to further investigate how microplastics can impact human health. Previous studies have found microplastics in foods we eat from the sea, such as oysters, and in the stomachs of fish.
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