Tastebud or Toxins?

I have always felt that that much of the charm of eating out was the camaraderie, the ambiance, and the relaxation, more than the food.  even the best restaurants are unable to match my wife's culinary skills... Nevertheless, a major part of any holiday has always been the adventure of eating out, of trying different ethnic foods which were not as universally available as they now are, of trying things that were too difficult or too messy to make at home.  Perhaps most of all was the delight of sitting sipping a glass of wine with one's spouse, while someone waited upon us.  We ate at some great restaurants both at home an abroad.  Often, the best restaurants were not the most expensive .Innovation and excellence were not confined to expensive restaurants and we had many esculent meals in modest eating places.
   Eating out while vacationing in America was often an adventure, both in the expensive and in the economic range. Quantities were absurdly extravagant and quality could range from mediocre to excellent.  Driving across America, one often found  small off-highway Mom and Pop restaurants that were surprisingly good.   And if one was anywhere near the coast, one was virtually guaranteed fish so fresh that it looked as though it might be just about ready to jump right off your plate!  Those were the days before the big restaurant chains ran everything.  It's hard to find a restaurant these days that isn't part of a chain.  Now, the preoccupation is more with uniformity than with excellence  They want to be just good enough to compete, no better.
   So, when my wife and I went to one of our favourite fish restaurants in Hilton Head, South Carolina for one of our favourite dishes, whole fried flounder on the bone, we knew exactly what we expected.  A big crispy beautiful looking seared fried flounder, so big that it's edges draped over the side of the plate.  Despite looking as good as it always did, it somehow lacked that exotic, ocean fresh flavour that I remembered. And was the consistency just a little different?   I was just beginning to think that maybe my aging taste buds were beginning to let me down when my wife said,"not quite as good as it used to be!" 
   Later that night as I read The Economist's predictions for 2016, I was reminded that the oceans have become dumps for huge mountains  of plastics.  It transpires that the plastic breaks up into micro-particles and these particles are ingested by the fish along with plankton and other micro-particles of food.
   Maybe we were just eating a little plastic with our flounder?