Plastic Causes Severe Harm to Marine Life

The uses for plastic are limited only by human imagination. The development and diversity of plastics has been a phenomenon of the past half century. Yet plastic is insidious, invasive, environmentally lethal and virtually indestructible. It can be readily and irresponsibly discarded and it can survive almost indefinitely. Animals living in and around the ocean are suffering because of this.

Half a century ago this oceanic cesspit was made largely of vegetable matter and was essentially biodegradable. Today it is 90 percent indestructible plastic. The patch contained up to 100 million tons of debris. The plastic hangs like a blanket 10m deep. Plastic particles in this man-made scum outnumber living plankton - the basic marine food source - by something like six to one. Under prolonged exposure to sunlight, together with wave and current friction, plastic breaks down into small, mere millimeter fragments.

The result is obvious and catastrophic. The United Nations Environmental Program estimates plastic is killing one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles each year. Whales, which live on a diet of plankton and krill, ingest these tiny plastic shards. Plastic is inevitably found in the stomachs of dead seabirds and turtles.

The ocean isn't large enough to avoid marine life encounters with debris. Plastic's devastating effect on marine mammals was first observed in the late 1970s, when scientists from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory concluded that plastic entanglement was killing up to 40,000 seals a year. Annually, this amounted to a four to six percent drop in seal population beginning in 1976. In 30 years, a 50% decline in Northern Fur Seals has been reported.

When plastic reaches our waters, whether it be plastic bags or drifting fish nets, it poses a threat to the animals that depend on the oceans for food. To a sea turtle, a floating plastic bag looks like a jellyfish. And plastic pellets--the small hard pieces of plastic from which plastic products are made--look like fish eggs to seabirds. Drifting nets entangle birds, fish and mammals, making it difficult, if not impossible to move or eat. As our consumption of plastic mounts, so too does the danger to marine life.

Curious, playful seals often play with fragments of plastic netting or packing straps, catching their necks in the webbing. The plastic harness can constrict the seal's movements, killing the seal through starvation, exhaustion, or infection from deep wounds caused by the tightening material. While diving for food, both seals and whales can get caught in translucent nets and drown. In the fall of 1982, a humpback whale tangled in 50 to 100 feet of net washed up on a Cape Cod beach. It was starving and its ribs were showing. It died within a couple of hours.



Pelicans diving for fish sometimes dive for the bait on a fisherman's line. Cutting the bird loose only makes the problem worse, as the pelican gets its wings and feet tangled in the line, or gets snagged onto a tree.

Plastic soda rings, "baggies," styrofoam particles and plastic pellets are often mistaken by sea turtles as authentic food. Clogging their intestines, and missing out on vital nutrients, the turtles starve to death. Seabirds undergo a similar ordeal, mistaking the pellets for fish eggs, small crab and other prey, sometimes even feeding the plastic pellets to their young. Despite the fact that only 0.05% of plastic pieces from surface waters are pellets, they comprise about 70% of the plastic eaten by seabirds. These small plastic particles have been found in the stomachs of 63 of the world's approximately 250 species of seabirds.

Marine life is hopeless in this situation and they rely on us to help in diminishing the toxins in their home. Even little amounts can help, liking breaking down the plastic rings holding a six pack together, or cutting the ring on a milk carton. The damage is done, but it does not have to get worse for these innocent ocean creatures. Do your part.

Plastic and Its 400 Year Ability to Remain

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is causing massive amounts of harm to nature in every aspect and must be controlled.

It is unimaginable to try and picture a gigantic garbage dump swirling in the Pacific Ocean that stretches from Hawaii to Japan. Still increasing in size, it is currently estimated to cover an area twice the size of the continental United States. This enormous amount of debris has been nicknamed The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or trash vortex, and is the world’s largest rubbish dump. It is held in place by swirling underwater currents.

I became interested on the topic when I came across a headline discussing the matter. Huge quantities of trash were washing up on shores, sparking media attention. I was fascinated because I had never heard of the garbage patch, nor could I believe the size of this toxic monster. As I researched more, I was concerned about the hazardous effects troubling marine life, as well as humans.

Los Angeles River, photo taken after a recent storm

About one fifth of the plastic junk is thrown off of ships or oil platforms, and the rest comes from land. To form a clearer vision of just how large this dump is, we can look to Sailor Moore. He sailed through the area for a consistent week and saw mounds of floating garbage every time he looked out into the water.

An effort needs to be made by consumers to rid ourselves from living in a litter infested world. Unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade. As well, the fate and impact on marine ecosystems must be analyzed. More than a million sea birds ever year, as well as more than 100,000 marine animals have fallen victim to the garage patch.

Before the days of plastic, when fishermen dumped their trash overboard or lost a net, it consisted of natural materials like metal, cloth or paper that would either sink to the bottom or biodegrade quickly. But plastic remains floating on the surface, the same place where many genuine food sources lie, and can remain so for 400 years. Plastic is durable and strong; precisely the qualities that make it so dangerous if it reaches the ocean. Ships were dumping massive amounts of garbage into the ocean, and littering people were letting their trash wash into drains and the garbage would eventually make its way out into the ocean.

In 1987, a law was finally passed restricting the dumping of plastics into the ocean. The Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act (MARPOL) went into effect on December 31, 1988, making it illegal for any U.S. vessel or land-based operation to dispose of plastics at sea. It prohibits the dumping of plastics anywhere in the ocean, and the dumping of other materials, such as paper, glass, metal, and crockery, closer to shore.

Some researchers say it is a clean up battle that could never be won. The large amount of plastic in the Pacific may always remain, but we can do our part and prevent the statistics from consistently increasing.