SOURCE: Daily Mail
DATE: January 7, 2019
SNIP: British wildlife is under threat from invasive species that wash up on our shores after clinging to plastic litter dumped thousands of miles away, experts say.
Record numbers of tropical sea creatures are attaching themselves to plastic waste then being swept across the Atlantic by the Gulf Stream and ending up on our beaches.
It is feared this could have a catastrophic impact on British sea life and wipe out native species.
Wildlife expert Steve Trewhella found 20 invasive species on one 18-mile stretch of beach in Dorset alone, including a venomous Florida rock snail attached to an old shoe.
The snail, thought to have travelled more than 4,000 miles, is an active predator which destroys native mussels and molluscs.