Plastic Pollution Sounds Like Food to Whales Using Echolocation [Video]

For whales that dive deeper into the oceans for food, they face a growing threat: plastic pollution. That’s because the sounds that plastics make can be very similar to the sounds that prey make, leading to confusion for whales that rely on echolocation to source food.

According to a new study, published in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, visual confusion between pollution and prey is not the only way that whales are ingesting plastics.

“These acoustic signatures are similar, and this might be a reason that these animals are driven to consume plastic instead of, or in addition to, their prey,” Greg Merrill, lead author of the study and a graduate student at Duke University, said in a statement.

Some whales, such as sperm whales, pygmy sperm whales and goose-beaked whales, use echolocation to detect food sources deeper into the ocean. They dive deep into the water, then send clicks, creaks and buzzes, the sounds of which …