Plastic is used in many man-made items, which are used in people’s everyday lives. Since only 9% of plastic is properly recycled, the majority of plastic waste either “accumulates in landfills” or gets dumped into the ocean and other natural environments (Parker, L., 2017). There are multiple reasons why plastic ends up in the ocean. Some examples include, people do not properly recycle plastic, small plastic particles go down sink drains, and it is cheaper for companies to dump all of their plastic in the ocean rather than properly disposing it. This leads to now having over 5 trillion pieces of plastic floating in the ocean, which weighs around 260,000 tons (Eriksen, M et al., 2014). Due to this overwhelming amount of plastic in the ocean,
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Every day, there are over 700 marine animals who are exposed to plastic garbage (Lacurci, J., 2015). This leads to having over 100,000 marine animals and one million seabirds die due to the plastic garbage in the water every year (Facts About Marine Litter). Entanglement is a huge issue with the increasing amount of plastic debris in the ocean. The 3 animals that most commonly get entangled in debris are sea turtles, fur seals, and Hawaiian monk seals. Many sea animals enjoy rolling around in the debris like fishing nets and other pieces of floating plastic. They will get tangled in it and eventually suffocate when they “grow into the plastic collars” (Derraik, J. G., 2002). Not only will they have a high chance of dying when tangled up, but it will be difficult to get food, they won’t be able to swim like they used to, so it will be harder to get away from predators, they could get scraped or cut if the debris is sharp, and could develop a severe infection (Derraik, J. G., 2002). When plastics break down, they eventually become micro plastics, which are smaller than 5 millimeters long. Since micro plastic cannot be seen with the naked eye, marine animals like “zooplanktons, lobsters, worms, sea urchins, and fish” can swallow them when drinking the ocean water without noticing (Sharma, S., & Chatterjee, S., 2017). Larger animals like whales and sharks may ingest large pieces of plastic like plastic bags due to their size of mouth. Recently, a whale was euthanized because it ingested over 30 plastic bags and other non-biodegradable plastic debris (Horton, H., 2017). There have been many stories like this one where large animals have died due to ingesting plastic. As micro plastic makes its way up the food chain, more and more animals become affected. At the bottom of the marine food chain, zooplankton are primary consumers and “consists of the juvenile life stage of numerous commercially important species” (Cole, M
Every day, there are over 700 marine animals who are exposed to plastic garbage (Lacurci, J., 2015). This leads to having over 100,000 marine animals and one million seabirds die due to the plastic garbage in the water every year (Facts About Marine Litter). Entanglement is a huge issue with the increasing amount of plastic debris in the ocean. The 3 animals that most commonly get entangled in debris are sea turtles, fur seals, and Hawaiian monk seals. Many sea animals enjoy rolling around in the debris like fishing nets and other pieces of floating plastic. They will get tangled in it and eventually suffocate when they “grow into the plastic collars” (Derraik, J. G., 2002). Not only will they have a high chance of dying when tangled up, but it will be difficult to get food, they won’t be able to swim like they used to, so it will be harder to get away from predators, they could get scraped or cut if the debris is sharp, and could develop a severe infection (Derraik, J. G., 2002). When plastics break down, they eventually become micro plastics, which are smaller than 5 millimeters long. Since micro plastic cannot be seen with the naked eye, marine animals like “zooplanktons, lobsters, worms, sea urchins, and fish” can swallow them when drinking the ocean water without noticing (Sharma, S., & Chatterjee, S., 2017). Larger animals like whales and sharks may ingest large pieces of plastic like plastic bags due to their size of mouth. Recently, a whale was euthanized because it ingested over 30 plastic bags and other non-biodegradable plastic debris (Horton, H., 2017). There have been many stories like this one where large animals have died due to ingesting plastic. As micro plastic makes its way up the food chain, more and more animals become affected. At the bottom of the marine food chain, zooplankton are primary consumers and “consists of the juvenile life stage of numerous commercially important species” (Cole, M