What is plastic doing to our oceans?
The plastic in our oceans impacts on three main things. The first is our marine life.
Many animals such as jellyfish, turtles and albatross mistake plastic as food. Fishnets snare sea turtles and dolphins, endangering their population, birds mistake rubbish for food, eating it and eventually dying. "According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year...Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food." (UNEP, 2006 in Marks K, 2008) Even the smallest pieces of plastic are causing problems. When plastic accumulates in animals digestive tracts, it causes them to choke and starve to death from lack of nutrition, even if they have a full stomach. Marine mammals can also starve from the lack of sunlight reaching algae and plankton due to rubbish on the surface, stopping it from producing nutrients. Therefore, fish cannot feed on plankton causing them to die resulting in less food for predators.
Many animals such as jellyfish, turtles and albatross mistake plastic as food. Fishnets snare sea turtles and dolphins, endangering their population, birds mistake rubbish for food, eating it and eventually dying. "According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year...Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food." (UNEP, 2006 in Marks K, 2008) Even the smallest pieces of plastic are causing problems. When plastic accumulates in animals digestive tracts, it causes them to choke and starve to death from lack of nutrition, even if they have a full stomach. Marine mammals can also starve from the lack of sunlight reaching algae and plankton due to rubbish on the surface, stopping it from producing nutrients. Therefore, fish cannot feed on plankton causing them to die resulting in less food for predators.
"Scientists estimate that every year at least a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die when they entangle themselves in debris or ingest it." (Hohn, D, 2008)
The main issues and impacts of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Source: http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cleanoceansinfographic.jpeg
This statistical infographic created by One World One Ocean shows the composition of plastic and how it can damage our environment and marine life. '73.9 million pounds of plastic are spread throughout the worlds gyres'; '54% of the 120 marine mammal species on the threatened list have been observed entangled in or ingesting plastic.' It is clear from these statistics that One World One Ocean is wanting to highlight the negative aspects of using plastic and what problems it causes for our marine mammals and environment.
"Of 671 fish collected, 35 percent had ingested plastic particles." (Eriksen, M, 2009)
However, entanglement and ingestion are not the worst problems caused by plastic waste. “Scientists from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation say that fish tissues contain some of the same chemicals as the plastic. The scientists speculate that toxic chemicals are leaching into fish tissue from the plastic they eat." (Hoshaw, L, 2009) PCB's, DDT's (materials used in the manufacture of plastics) and other toxic chemicals don't break down in water, plastic absorbs these chemicals making it a 'poison pill'.
The Composition of Plastics found in the Gyre
Source: http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/0905/trans0509throughthegyre.html
Because fish feed on plankton, plastic nurdles can be mistaken as food and fish then ingest the microplastics along with the chemicals they have absorbed. "(The Algalita Marine Research Foundation) wanted to see if the most common fish in the deep ocean, at the base of the food chain, was ingesting these poison pills. (They) did hundreds of necropsies, and over a third had polluted plastic fragments in their stomachs. The record-holder, only two and a half inches long, (6.35 cm) had 84 pieces in its tiny stomach." (Moore, C, 2009)
"Once fish or plankton ingest these pills, Moore speculated, poisons both in and on the plastic would enter the food web. And since such toxins concentrate, or “bioaccumulate,” in fatty tissues as they move up the chain of predation — so that the “contaminant burden” of a swordfish is greater than a mackerel’s and a mackerel’s greater than a shrimp’s — this plastic could be poisoning people too." (Moore, C, 2008 in Dohn, H 2008)
Plastic also impacts on humans. Because fish containing traces of plastic cannot be sold, the viability of local and commercial fishing operations has the potential to be adversely effected. But most importantly plastic pollutants have the added potential to damage our health and well-being. Plastic acts as a chemical sponge and attracts man made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and pesticide DDT which enters our food chain through fish. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner place. It's that simple," said Dr Eriksen. (Eriksen, M, 2006 in Marks, K, 2008)