Microplastics: An emerging threat to the Chesapeake Bay
Microplastics are a result of our decades-long reliance on plastics and their threat to the Bay may not be fully known for years. Author: David Alan Updated: 11:26 PM EDT April 8, 2021
NORFOLK, Va. The Chesapeake Bay is a treasure. Its miles and miles of shoreline remind us we are Tidewater. The Bay welcomes us home. It s an economic driver for our region and it s also a vulnerable and sophisticated ecosystem being threatened by plastic.
Along a small stretch of shoreline in Portsmouth, we found a smorgasbord of trash. You can see everything from water bottles to plastic bags, said Chris Moore with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. We found a sneaker, dozens of construction hard hats, even a traffic drum. Every bit of trash we saw as we walked the shoreline was the ugly side of our reliance on plastics.