Microplastics: A hidden danger

Plastic pollution poses a major threat to the world's oceans. When the material breaks down to become microplastics, it can be more easily ingested by fish, and enters the human body via the food chain.

The 2018 China Marine Ecology and Environment Bulletin, published in May by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, indicated that plastics account for about 80 percent of the waste in China's oceans. Microplastics were found in the Yellow and the South China seas.

The report-the result of ministry research in 57 marine areas-also said plastic waste, such as bottles and bags, accumulates at tourist sites, fishing areas and harbors.

It added that an average of 47,000 pieces of plastic were found in each square kilometer of beach, while the number was about 910 per sq km in the deep sea.

However, Huo Chuanlin, deputy director of the ministry's Department of Marine Ecology and Environment, said China should not be the most-blamed country for plastic pollution.

"China is the largest producer and exporter of plastics, but it doesn't mean it is the largest polluting country. Lots of studies prove that," Huo said in a media release on Oct 29.

In 2018, Li Daoji, a professor of oceanography at East China Normal University in Shanghai, released the results of his team's research at the Eco Forum Global Annual Conference in Guiyang, Guizhou province. The research showed that the density of microplastics in China's oceans was at a medium level, compared with other countries.

"Sometimes, research groups from different countries adopt different methods to take samples, which may cause differences in the results. A unified standard of monitoring and calculation should be promoted across the world," he was quoted as saying by China Profiles magazine.

Regardless of the pollution ranking, the amount of microplastics in the world's oceans is rising and a global war on ocean pollution is urgently needed.