[animal]Sea Squirt, Animal to Remove Plastic Pollutants

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the use of plastic for everyday life is increasing. Even plastic waste has polluted the deepest parts of the ocean. Plastics are products that take a long time to disintegrate. Reporting from the International Union for Conservation Nature, 300 million tonnes of plastic waste are produced annually and 8 million tonnes of it end up in the oceans. Large plastic waste can ensnare sea creatures and is responsible for the death of 100 million marine animals each year. Meanwhile, the plastic that decomposes into smaller particles is called microplastic. Microplastics are spread throughout the oceans to deep waters. With their small form, microplastics easily enter the body of living things without realizing it and cause health problems until death.

 

Sea Squit absorbs microplastic pollutants

But did you know there is one marine animal that naturally helps clean up microplastic pollutants in the oceans? The animal is nicknamed the Sea Squit or sea spray. Sea Squirt or ascidians are marine invertebrates originating from the Chordata phylum and the Tunicata subphylum group. Sea Squirt is a solitary or grouped creature that lives in many shallow waters. They are tubular hemaphrodite animals with a soft body. Reporting from the New College of Florida, sea squirt is often considered a pest because it contaminates dock masts and also sticks to the hull of ships. Until finally an Israeli researcher named Gal Vered from Tel Aviv University, stated in his journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, that the ascidian (Sea Squit) stays in place all its life and filters water like a pump, including microplastics in it.

Reporting from a-ZzAnimal, Sea Squit takes water through two siphon holes on its upper body, then passes through the pharynx and through the gill slits. The microplastics in the water are filtered and stored in their bodies, reducing the amount of microplastic pollutants in the ocean. In addition, the absorption of microplastic pollutants by Sea Squit is also considered to be able to help analyze the levels of plastic waste in an area in the ocean and how it impacts that area. According to Gal Vered, Sea Squit can provide an overview of what coral reefs and entire ecosystems feel to microplastics during their lifetime.