Paper, Bioinspired Design Potential: Deep-Sea Lobsters Able to Grind Plastics Down to “Secondary Microplastics”

It’s no secret that millions of metric tons of plastic waste wash into the ocean each year, where it is broken down into smaller fragments that are incredibly hard to track. Research released of the heinous impacts this has on ocean ecosystems, like causing aneurysms in fish, and sea turtles and birds ingestion are decently known; however, the impacts on deep-sea organisms are largely unexplored territory. The Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, is among those deep-sea organisms and a new study carried out by scientists at Italy’s Universitá Politecnica delle Marche and Universitá degli Studi di Cagliari sought to establish what happens when these types of low-lying species ingest plastic waste. “Their findings highlight the existence of a new peculiar kind of “secondary” microplastics, introduced in the environment by biological activities, which could represent a significant pathway of plastic degradation in a secluded and stable environment like the deep sea,” according to the article I found. I feel like this discovery could be the foundational research experiment to promote further research of benthic crustacean’s digestive systems. With better understanding of how these organisms breakdown the plastic, we might emulate similar tactics to help break down the existing and continuously increasing plastic waste in our oceans. Here is the link for a less-jargon-y article about it: https://newatlas.com/environment/lobsters-grind-plastics-secondary-microplastics/ Here is the link to the scientific paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.9b07705

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