Dolphins are at risk of inhaling microplastics, leading to potential lung damage

Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico are breathing in microplastics that can cause lung disease.

Researchers at the College of Charleston in South Carolina conducted routine catch-and-release health assessments of five bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) 6 from Sarasota Bay, Florida and 6 from Barataria Bay, Louisiana in May and June 2023.

As part of the test, they held a Petri dish over the animals' blowholes and looked for tiny pieces of plastic in their breath.

To make sure these dishes weren't just picking up airborne microplastics anyway, the researchers moved a second petri dish away from the fumarole and collected a control sample. .

They found that all the dolphins exhaled microplastics. A total of 54 such fragments were collected, each less than 500 microns in size.

Team members say this shows dolphins are breathing in microplastics. Miranda Ziobak. “These particles exist everywhere, regardless of urbanization or human development.”

Geobak expects similar results to occur in other parts of the world. “Microplastics are super small and super lightweight, making them easy to transport,” she says. “Some researchers have shown that microplastics can travel thousands of miles through the air.”

The researchers haven't investigated whether these particles are harming the dolphins, but previous research suggests they might.

“What we know from human studies is that inhaling microplastics can cause lung inflammation and other respiratory problems,” Geobak says. “Dolphins may also be at risk for lung disease, as particles similar to those reported in humans were observed in their exhaled breath.”

nina wootton A professor at Australia’s University of Adelaide says he wants to know exactly what effect these microplastics may have on dolphins. “A number of studies have shown that microplastics can contaminate animals at fairly high concentrations, even though they are known to cause health effects,” she says.

“Unfortunately, finding microplastics in marine life is now standard, and most specimens studied commonly contain microplastics. Dolphins are an indicator of the health of marine ecosystems. As they are often indicative, this finding supports the fact that microplastics are indeed ubiquitous.”