Animal Digestible Food Packaging Initiative

Researchers with Australian James Cook University and others published October 28, 2020 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B the abstract of a study that explored “… how the dual threat of habitat degradation and microplastic exposure may affect the behavior and survival of coral reef fish in the field … Exposure to microplastics or dead coral led fish to be bolder, more active and stray further from shelter compared to control fish. Effect sizes indicated that plastic exposure had a greater effect on behavior than degraded habitat, and we found no evidence of synergistic effects. This pattern was also displayed in their survival in the field. Our results highlight that attaining low concentrations of microplastic in the environment will be a useful management strategy, since minimizing microplastic intake by fishes may work concurrently with reef restoration strategies to enhance the resilience of coral reef populations …” - The web link to the abstract is included in the post on the home page of Plastic Food Packaging Waste News http://www.pfpw.news at https://pfpw.news/2020/10/28/microplastics-effects-on-coral-reef-fish/