Tuesday 6 October 2015

Plastic Pollution in the Ocean

The previous few posts focus mainly on animals living primarily on land. However, let's not forget about marine animals!

Ocean pollution exists in several forms such as oil, sewage, dumping of trash, air pollution and agricultural runoff. The image below shows the estimated decomposition rate for some of the common trash or marine debris.

Pictures below are taken from google images. 



For this blog post, I will be focusing specifically on plastic pollution and its effect on marine animals. 

Here are some facts about plastic pollution in the ocean: 

  • 90 percent of trash that floats on the ocean's surface are plastic
  • 1 million sea birds and 100, 000 marine animals die each year due to plastic in the oceans
  • All sea turtle species, 44% of sea birds, 22% of cetaceans and many fish species have been documented with plastic in or around their bodies

The existence of trash poses as a great danger to marine animals such as sea turtles and sea birds. Some of these threats include getting entangled, eating the plastic bags due to its resemblance to plastic bags which causes digestive problems, colliding with the larger debris and getting injured or killed etc. The following pictures show the fate of some of the marine animals. Pictures are taken from Nearpictures (n.d.).








The viral video below show two marine biologists saving an Olive Ridley sea turtle. A plastic straw that is about 10cm long was stuck deep into this sea turtle's nostril. Do watch the video at your discretion as it may be disturbing for some viewers.

Removing a plastic straw from a sea turtle's nostril - Short Version (The Leatherback Trust, 2015).

It's time we dispose our waste responsibly.

The single action of tossing litter into the river can make a difference between a marine animal's life and death.

References:


Hasselberger, L. (2014, April 7). 22 Facts About Plastic Pollution (And 10 Things We Can Do About It). Retrieved October 6, 2015, from http://ecowatch.com/2014/04/07/22-facts-plastic-pollution-10-things-can-do-about-it/

Nearpictures, (n.d.). Plastic Bags In Ocean images & pictures - NearPics. [online] Nearpictures.com. Available at: http://nearpictures.com/pages/p/plastic-bags-in-ocean/ [Accessed 6 Oct. 2015].


The Leatherback Trust (2015). Removing a plastic straw from a sea turtle's nostril - Short Version.[video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2J2qdOrW44 [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015].

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