The problem
The ocean pollution is a massive challenge, of enormous magnitude and the impact is has on life is appalling. Just to give an idea the amount of known waste floating on surface which is just a part of the pollution in the water is approximately 5 trillion pieces, to help visualize, think about taking all the plastic and lining it up. Do you know how far a distance it could go?
It would be enough to cover the distance from Earth to the Moon & Back, twice!
Impact on life
What one should realize about marine animals dying from plastic is not the number of death, rather the process which leads them to death. The thing with death of animals consuming plastic is it’s not instantaneous death. Lot of these birds and animals eat the plastic thinking it is food, only for the plastic to get stuck in their stomach or intestinal lining.
Some creatures like turtle have downward facing spines in their throats which prevent the possibility of regurgitation. Most animals are unable to get the plastic outside their body once they swallow it. Which leads to either blockage of their stomach and intestine. This prevents them from consuming food leading to starvation. Imagine not being able to eat anything and starving to death slowly and painfully. The question that begs to be asked is, do they really deserve this, because we are careless, careless not to dispose our waste responsibility.
Did you know many sea turtles commonly deal with “bubble butts,” turtles that float as a result of trapped gas caused by harmful decomposition of marine debris inside a turtle’s body. The gases cause the turtle to float, which leads to starvation or makes them an easy target for predators.
Around 1 million marine animals are killed annually by plastic pollution annually. They include mammals, fish, sharks, turtles, and birds. According to a research recently 80% of fish in amazon has plastic in them. Around 8% of seals have found to be entangled with fish.