Plastic Harming Ocean Animals

Mountains of plastic trash have been found everywhere in the world s oceans from one of the remotest specks of dirt on the planet henderson island a tiny uninhabited coral atoll in the middle.

Plastic harming ocean animals.

We could throw statistics at you all day long e g. Plastic is polluting oceans all over the planet. Most of the deaths to animals are caused by entanglement or starvation. Upwards of 300 million tons of plastic are.

The idea of sweeping the ocean has plenty of critics. The ocean supplies midway island with a constant stream of garbage. Plastic straws are one of the top 10 items found every year during ocean conservancy s international coastal cleanup plastic is not biodegradable instead the material eventually breaks down into tiny particles known as microplastics that are 5 millimeters or smaller in length making them difficult to clean or filter from the ocean. Seals whales turtles and other animals are strangled by abandoned fishing gear or discarded six pack rings microplastics.

Thousands of animals from small finches to blue whales die grisly deaths from eating and getting caught in plastic. Examples abound from the gray whale that died after stranding near seattle in 2010 with more than 20 plastic bags a golf ball and other rubbish in its stomach to the harbor seal pup found dead on the scottish island of skye its intestines fouled by a small piece of plastic wrapper. Remnants of cultures all. They eat it they get caught in it or get sick because of it.

In the atlantic this january biologist rebecca helm from the university of north carolina asheville suggested that the barrier could devastate creatures that float at the ocean s surface the portuguese man o war for example that feed larger animals such as leatherback turtles. Humans invented plastic and animals are harmed by it. For animals plastic is turning the ocean into a minefield from getting stuck in nets to eating plastic that they think is food creatures worldwide are dying from material we made. Fish in the north pacific ingest 12 000 to 24 000 tons of plastic each year which can cause intestinal injury and death and transfers plastic up the food chain to bigger fish marine mammals and human seafood eaters.

How the plastic you use is killing animals on one of the world s most remote islands 3 years ago. Some warn of ecological harm.