5 Gyres - Understanding Plastic Pollution Through Exploration, Education, and Action

As a member of the 5 Gyres team back from an expedition to the Atlantic I'm no stranger to the horrendous fact that plastic is ending up in the marine food chain. What's really scary is that plastic works like a sponge for chemicals in the ocean--- and bad ones too-- PCBs, DDT, flame retardants, etc. But so far, I only have firsthand experience with plastic in fish. But this morning, one of my brothers in arms from the Connecticut Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation posted the above picture and this description:

"This Saturday we purchased steamers from a large, retail grocer. They were local, wild harvested. While eating one I felt something strange - I spit it out and found what turned out to be a small styrofoam ball. Assuming it was a simple mistake we continued to eat but being more careful. In the end, we found 6 clams with these styrofoam balls. At first we thought it was from shipping but upon further review these balls were in various parts of the steamers and could only get there through ingestion."

And here is what they pulled out of the clams: