Every year, millions of tonnes of microplastic particles flow from rivers into our oceans
causing harm to wildlife.
Wastewater plants struggle to capture these fragments.
Sieve-like filters can quickly become clogged.
But now an animal from the very oceans which were contaminating has inspired a solution.
Manta rays feed on plankton by filtering sea water through their mouths,
but clogging isn't a problem for them.
When a manta ray opens its mouth to feed,
the water flows around tiny angled slats making whirlpools and eddies.
This bounces the plankton away from the filter whilst water flows out.
The plankton never pass through the filter, only the water does
and that means the filter doesn't get clogged.
The water drains away until a thick plankton soup is left behind, which the ray swallows. Delicious.
As for our water treatment plant, scientists have designed a system that works in the same way,
bouncing microplastics away from a filter using a complex pattern of swirling eddies.
So hopefully one day soon we'll stop microplastics from contaminating the ocean
thanks to one of its residents - the manta ray.