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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Karen McVeigh

REVEALED: Plastic nurdles stop sea urchins developing properly study finds | Vintage Vibes

Adestroyed kelp forest filled with an explosion of purple sea urchins off the Oregon coast
Purple sea urchins. The larvae in the study showed ‘developmental abnormalities including malformation of the skeleton, neural and immune cells’. Photograph: Scott Groth/AP

Sea urchins raised in sea water with high levels of plastic pollution, including fragments collected from a Cornish surfing beach, die from developmental abnormalities, research shows.

Scientists placed fertilised urchin eggs in seawater with varying levels of plastic to compare the effects of newly made plastic pellets, or “nurdles”, with the impacts of high levels of fragments found washed up on Watergate Bay in Cornwall.

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