How Are Animals Affected By Trash In The Ocean

Sea life can mistake plastic, inedible, objects for food. Sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jelly fish, which is one of their favorite foods, and quickly die (Geographic). Resin pellets, which are used to make just about anything plastic, are often mistaken for food, especially due to the resemblance with fish eggs. Ingesting hard plastics can easily become lodged in an animal’s intestines or stomach and cause a slow and painful death. These marine animals do not know better than to eat what looks like food, it is not their responsibility to avoid the garbage.

In the article, "Plastic in Our Oceans", Kimberly Amaral discusses the everyday uses of plastic and how it can be beneficial to humans, but harmful to marine life. As fishermen casually dump waste overboard, animals mistake it for food sources, such as a turtle mistaking a plastic grocery bag for a jellyfish. From the trash brought out to sea, gyres, large circulations of water, carry the garbage through currents, spreading it to all over the ocean, specifically to the central gyre. Amaral notes common ways for marine life to die from plastic, which include entanglement by plastic rings, consumption of plastic bags and pellets which stuff the intestines and lead to health problems, and suffocation. As researchers today work hard to discover

In the documentary “Inside the Garbage of the World”, the main social problem being explained is that there has been a great influx of plastic and other type of garbage in oceans and their beaches. This buildup of pollution has largely affected the wildlife population ranging from animals on the beaches to the creatures of the ocean. In oceans, what is called ‘garbage patches’, a large buildup of garbage that flow to one area in the oceans, are being created. Approximately 50 percent of all plastic sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor but about 2 times that much is actually already on the ocean floor. In fact, according to the documentary, there is a garbage patch that is to the left of California that is the size of half of the United States. Each year, about 4.7 million tons of plastic goes in the ocean a year and it is estimated that by 2050, there will be another 33 billion tons of plastic added to the present amount. Eighty percent of the current pollution comes from the land. According to marine researchers, twice as much plastic debris is one the ocean floor than it was 10 years ago. In the futures, plastic will break down into smaller pieces of plastic, creating a bigger problem from the habitat. This plastic pollution is one of the leading cause for beach and ocean inhabiting creatures be extinct because animals are mistaking these plastic pieces for food. When scientist began to dissect beach animals such as birds, they discovered that at least fifteen pounds of

These plastic bits are so small it is almost impossible for fish and other marine life to distinguish them between plankton, which many fish and other larger animals such as whales eat (Great Pacific Garbage Patch). Many animals are consuming this trash ultimately leading to their death. For example loggerhead sea turtles it is common for them to mistake plastic grocery bags as their favorite food, which is jellyfish (Great Pacific Garbage Patch). Many other larger mammals and water birds have been strangled in plastic rings that holds canned drinks together (Great Pacific Garbage Patch). Many birds will commonly fly over the Pacific Garbage Patch, including the albatross, and unfortunately many mistake the garbage as food (The Great Pacific Garbage). A shocking number of 200,000 to 500,000 chicks that were born died, many of them having trash in their stomachs, not only plastics but also bottle caps and various items were found (The Great Pacific Garbage). It has been predicted that about 100,000 marine mammals will die from trash-related deaths per year, many pieces of plastic and garbage has been found in deceased animals’ digestive systems (Great Pacific Garbage Patch). Rusty Brainard, working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Once upon a time, a dolphin named Blue and a sea horse named Gary were playing a game of tag. When suddenly, they stumbled upon a plastic container. “Whoa! What's that?” Blue asked. “I think it’s food” Gary said.

The great pacific garbage patch has been known to have a great effect on the oceanic wildlife. They tend to think that the pieces of trash floating through the ocean is food so they eat it. Not only would them eating all the plastics and trash that is thrown into the ocean affecting them but it also affects us. We are the ones who tend to eat fish and many animals from the ocean which means that in some way we end up with the trash in our bodies. I want to understand how a fish and a turtle are still able to survive after consuming the trash and how it is affecting their body as time passes by.

Plastics can also hurt sea life by injuring them. When you are out of the boat and the plastic ring that held your Cokes fly away, it seems like no big deal. Those rings can get wrapped around the necks and heads of turtles, dolphins, and even seals. It can slowly suffocate them, or injure them severely. Plastic grocery bags also have a tendency to kill sea life. Plastic bags never biodegrade, but they do breakdown. As they do so, any toxic additives they contain—including flame retardants, antimicrobials and plasticizers—will be released into the environment (ecowatch.com). Drifting nets that someone cut off their boat entangles birds, fishes and mammals. Eventually, killing them from starvation or exhaustion. The more plastic we use, the more animals we put at risk. All the plastic ocean in the earth is caused by us. We have to pick up our trash and help make the lives of sea life normal again. They

Environmental pollution produces bacteria which results as diseases and disorders in humans, animals, agricultural plantations. The process of pollution occurs when toxins are released into the ground water from landfill sites, this pollution stays in the environment for hundreds of years, while they break down; those plastic bags get into the food chain through animals that ingest small particles of plastic (Eriksen 2013). It wastes energy during the manufacturing process of plastic bags. Garbage in the ocean kills many of the estimated 100,000 marine animals that die each year of plastic pollution (Hammer 2012). This problem is directly affecting the world’s oceans, beaches, coasts, seafloor, animals and ultimately humans. The tremendous attraction to plastic; coupled with overconsumption, discarding, and littering has become

“In Australia, you can tell how far you are away from a city by how much plastic is on the beach and in the water near the beach” Dr Wilcox explained in an interview with the ABC. “About every 11 years the amount of plastic doubles”. It is estimated that there are up to 51 trillion plastic particles in the ocean, and around 8 million tonnes of plastic went into the ocean in 2010 alone. All this plastic finds its way into the ocean, where billions of marine animals call their home. Many animals confuse plastic littering for food, including sea turtles. Plastic bags are responsible for the deaths of over 100,000 marine animals every year. This a significant number of animals dying each year, all because of plastic bags being littered and making its way to the ocean.

Today’s oceans contain more pollution than they ever have before. With this increase in pollution it has effected the way marine animals live. From recent studies that have been conducted there is an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean (Duncan, et al., 2016). The amount of pollution that enters the ocean can be attributed to the fact that 85% of the debris comes from landfills and less than 7% of plastic is recycled around the world (Fardim, et al., 2016). The harm of such debris has been detrimental

has an extremely negative impact on many animals. Water polluted with different chemicals can cause a decline of population in some species; On the other hand water polluted with nutrients can lead to huge growth of toxic algae which when eaten by other animals may cause serious diseases and death to these animals. Persistent organic pollutants contains the growth of fish and wipe out their breed. Chemical runoff from farms run into oceans, seas, lakes and rivers. Littering can also lead to death of many animals because of toxic substances in trash, such as oil, plastic, detergents and pesticides (How Pollution Affect Animals). Oil spills affect marine animals and sea birds. The oil makes the water harder to swim through, making the animals exhausted, and also making it harder for it to breathe (Levete 12). Oil spills damages the growth of sea birds (Effects of Pollution on People...). Animals can also die by getting themselves entangled in one of the many litter items dumped in the water. Plastic waste can cause dangers to animals. Around one hundred million tons of plastic is produced each year, ten percent ends up in the sea. A million sea birds and mammals are killed each year by plastic waste (5 Ways Water Pollution is Killing Animals). Plastic bags are killing the animals in the water. The bags can suffocate or choke the animal, by getting caught around it's body (Levete 12). Noise pollution is also becoming a huge problem for many animals, especially ones that live in

Recycling can also reduce water pollution. When substances such as plastics are improperly disposed into rivers and beaches, it could be very destructive to the environment. Not only do waste mostly plastic waste, contaminate these water bodies, but they also harm marine life. One of the biggest problems that have resulted due to the improper disposition of plastic and other waste is The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. “About 80 percent of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land based activities in North America and Asia” (“Great”, 2012). The Great Pacific Patch is an accumulation of trash in the ocean that spans over a large area. Based on studies conducted by Wilcox, Mallos, Leonard, Rodriguez and Hardesty (2016), marine litter mostly plastic has caused severe damage on marine wildlife. Because plastic does not biodegrade, it stays in these large bodies of water an accumulate. Various plastic products can cause suffocation of marine animals and possibly lead to death. Marine animals may view these items as food and consume them. Once it is consumed, they can potentially die.

In today's society, one of the main problems we face is pollution. The role of plastic playing in the daily lives of people is interminable. The main problem with plastic is that it is tossed into the ocean and that it can travel long distances with the currents and winds. Marine animals and other animals that depend on the ocean for sustenance wind up eating the trash thinking that it’s food. This is especially true for plastic trash (Parker, 2015). For those of us who live on the coast, a mere walk on the beach gives us insight to how much our misuse of plastic has become. The number of seabirds that have ingested the plastic waste and have died is increasing, however, efforts to clean the plastic has stopped due to the cost of the clean-up.

How do you feel about living in a place where you’re surrounded by trash, and all of the chemicals you smell that messes up your brain? This is exactly what’s been happening to the poor creatures. The Pacific garbage patch in the west located near Japan and the eastern patch is located between the United States of Hawaii and California. This has been happening for centuries it’s not a problem that just emerged. National Geographic states, “When ships are caught in storms, they often lose cargo to the oceans (National Geo).” Which enters the ocean polluting everything that has chemicals stored in the cargo boxes. There have been many waste products stored in the oceans and everything gathering up polluting the animals. “In 1992, rubber duckies floated in the Pacific when a ship

Besides being unsightly, plastic in the oceans cause major detrimental effects to marine life. Animals can get entangled or even die from ingestion. “Globally, at least 23% of marine mammal species, 36% of seabird species, and 86% of sea turtle species are known to be affected by plastic debris” (Sigler, 2014, p. 3). Some plastic in the ocean gets broken down into smaller pieces that become increasingly toxic, which then get eaten by fish, and following the food chain end up effecting human health (Reisser et al., n.d., p. 2).