Mermaid tears are small pieces of glass or plastic found in oceans. Sea glass is highly sought after and can be made into jewelry, but plastic mermaid tears are dangerous to marine life. Nurdles, small pieces of plastic used in the plastics industry, are also a form of mermaid tear and can cause serious problems. Plastic mermaid tears are a serious problem for marine animals as they ingest them and can become ill or die. They can also contain chemical pollutants that affect organisms in the marine food chain.
Mermaid tears are small pieces of glass or plastic found in the world’s oceans. When bottles, cups, or other debris are dropped or thrown into water, they often break; the pieces are consumed by the noise of the waves and the sand, to form smooth and rounded shapes. Many people collect sea glass — another name for glass mermaid tears — but the plastic type is considered quite dangerous to marine life. These tiny bits of plastic might not look like much when held in the palm of your hand, but when you consider the fact that they’re widely distributed in the oceans, they can seem a little creepier.
Sea glass
There are different types of mermaid tears, depending on the material they are made from. The smooth, rounded, frosted tears that form from sea-worn glass are often highly sought after; this sea glass, which can be found in many different colors, can be made into jewelry and other charms, or simply collected as a beautiful stone. Glass mermaid tears have become quite difficult to find in recent years, however, as more products are sold in plastic bottles rather than glass. Some people use artificial methods to create the tumbled look of sea glass, but many collectors consider this to be “craft glass” and not real sea glass.
Nurdles and other plastics
Two different types of plastic debris are also known as mermaid tears; the former is also known as a nurdle. Nurdles are very small pieces of plastic that are designed to be melted down and then molded or otherwise molded to create plastic objects. They are widely used throughout the plastics industry. The most common source of nurdles are industrial spills from trucks and container ships; because nurdles are so small, they are difficult to contain and slide out of containers and into streams or straight into the ocean.
The other form of plastic siren tear is a small nurdle-sized piece of plastic, caused by wear and tear on the finished items. For example, if a broken plastic cup ends up in the ocean, the parts will shatter further, turning into little plastic tears. Studies of plastic debris in the ocean seem to suggest that these pieces only break up to a certain point and, after that, they will float in the ocean for thousands or possibly millions of years, potentially causing serious problems.
The dangers of mermaid tears
All types of mermaid tears are forms of pollution, although glass debris is generally much less hazardous than plastic. One reason sea glass has gotten harder to find is that one of its sources — the people on boats who simply toss the bottles overboard when they’re empty — is much less common than it once was. Glass is also commonly recycled, so less of it ends up in landfills. While still a pollutant, glass is also usually less dangerous to oceanic animals, although they can get cut or injured on sharp pieces.
By some measurements, nearly 90 percent of floating ocean pollution is plastic, and plastic mermaid tears are a serious problem for a variety of reasons. The first and most obvious is that they are ingested by marine animals, which cannot digest them; as a result, animals can become ill or die with large numbers of mermaid’s tears in their digestive tracts. Larger organisms can consume this plastic when they eat smaller organisms, and the plastic is then widely distributed in the marine food chain.
Perhaps more insidiously, plastic debris can also contain chemical pollutants. In addition to the chemicals naturally found in plastics, these little pellets can also pick up other chemicals and contaminants, ranging from toxins to endocrine disruptors, and any organism that ingests them will be affected. Plastic mermaid tears are essentially like tiny toxic sponges with a deadly payload, and in some cases the effects may not be noticed for several generations.
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