Study: 4 billion particles of tiny plastics pollute Tampa Bay

This study received funding from a Tampa Bay Estuary Program Mini-Grant.

To the naked eye, the waters of Tampa Bay look clean and inviting. But a new study says the bay, Florida’s largest estuary, is awash in tiny bits of plastic.

The study, published Thursday in the scientific journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, found about four billion particles of microplastics in the bay. Microplastics are each a 1/8 of an inch or smaller — tiny fragments of plastic bags or bottles, or threads from polyester clothing, discarded fishing line and other artificially manufactured jetsam.

Next up: a study that looks at how those bits of microplastics might be affecting manatees and other marine creatures that make their homes in the bay, according to Kinsley McEachern, the University of South Florida St. Petersburg marine sciences graduate student who led the study.

“Harmful chemicals and toxic organic pollutants like pesticides stick to them,” she said. And because the chemicals on microplastics can mimic hormones, "they can cause reproduction difficulties. It could have impacts throughout the entire food chain.”

So far, she said, there have been no studies on the impact on humans.

This is the first study to try to gauge just how badly polluted the bay has become from microplastics. McEachern got the idea for it several years ago when she heard Eckerd College professor David Hastings talking about his discovery that microplastics were turning up in samples his students were taking throughout the bay.