Scientists with the Surfer Biome Project are investigating whether antibiotic-resistant microbes can be spread though ocean water, says The New York Times. By taking samples from surfers’ mouths, bodies, and boards, the project hopes to learn how easily resistant organisms can pass into the human body.
“By some estimates, surfers can swallow about 170 milliliters, or five and three-quarters ounces, of seawater per session,” says the Times. A previous study “estimated that recreational swimmers and surfers in England and Wales may be exposed to resistant strains of E. coli in the ocean on more than six million occasions each year.”
Resistant genes have already been discovered in Beijing’s smog, and in chicken coops and urban wastewater treatment facilities in developing countries.
“At the moment, no one is sure whether it is actually possible for people to pick up these microbial genes from a long day at the beach,” says the Times. But the lead researcher, a surfer and biochemist named Cliff Kapono, “has found evidence for the transfer of resistance genes from bacteria in the ocean into strains associated with the human gut when they are placed in proximity.”