Abstract
The ocean has become a dangerous place for marine life. When plastic bottles end up in the ocean, it takes almost 450 years for that bottle to degrade. We have partnered with Paramount Planet Products (P3RD) to create non-plastic alternatives for packaging. To test their new materials, we were tasked with developing a series of assays to examine if the biodegraded material is safe for marine organisms. Hormones are steroids that can be used to indicate responses to environment, behavior, growth, and development within various groups of organisms. We chose a non-invasive method to study hormone response in zebrafish. This study aimed to examine the efficiency by which enzyme linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) can reveal the extent of stress and developmental problems that could result when fish are exposed to various materials. Developing these assays will allow us to create a standard service that could be used to test toxicity of biodegraded materials, and identify the adverse effects that materials found in our environments can elicit on marine wildlife.