Did you know!!? If plastic had been invented when the Pilgrims sailed from Plymouth, England, to North America, and the Mayflower had been stocked with bottled water and plastic wrapped snacks, their plastic trash would likely still be around, four centuries later!! But thankfully they didn’t have plastic or else it would´ve already ruined our oceans.
The oceans are part of the beauty of life! We need them. Imagine, if you went to california and you couldn’t even get in the ocean because of all the trash that it was just so gross.
Everyone knows what VSCO girls are and people think there stupid, but they actually have a point. We should be not only turtles but everything inside the ocean!
Right now it is estimated that up to 12 million metric tons of plastic! Everything from plastic bottles and bags to microbeads end up in our oceans each year. That’s a truckload of trash every minute.
In 2019 it was estimated that there were 5 trillion pieces of trash in our oceans. To estimate there’s also about 8 million metric tons dumped in the ocean every year! How may you ask does all this get in the ocean? Well, some main things are that when you smoke and drop the end of the cigarette in the street, that isn’t helping. The top 10 items that were picked up in a beach cleanup were food wrappers, beverage bottles, grocery bags, straws, plastic containers, all made of plastic.
But here’s the thing! We use plastic, from packaged food we buy, the computers we use, and all the cars we drive. But how much of that plastic do we only use once then throw it away? So much of the plastic that we use ends up in the ocean! But the future of our oceans is determined by the way we handle plastic onland.
Here are some more reasons why we have to use plastic carefully. From the tiniest plankton to the largest whales, plastic impacts nearly 700 species in our oceans. Plastic has been found in more than 60% of all seabirds and in 100% of sea turtles, will mistake plastic for food. Eating plastic is life threatening! Which can either lead to, reduced fitness, nutrient uptake and feeding efficiency, which we need to survive.
Imagine this, you are a sea animal, and everyday you are in danger because you are eating plastic and you don’t even realize it! For example, a sea otter floats at the top of the water and if there’s so much trash there that they are laying on their backs and trash is just floating all over them. Another example is a dolphin. Dolphins need to breathe, so if they come to the surface to breathe and there’s trash everywhere and they’ll either have a hard time breathing or they’ll inhale something through their breathing hole.
We need to help our oceans! From the website oceanconservancy.org states, ¨For more than 30 years, Ocean Conservancy has brought together more than 12 million volunteers from 153 countries to participate in our annual International Coastal Cleanup. In that time, volunteers have picked up more than 220 million pounds of trash from the world’s beaches.¨
Also from oceanconservancy.org it says that, ¨Our goal is to cut down the amount of plastic entering the ocean by half within a decade.
We believe that the long term solution to plastic in our ocean is to transform the role that plastic plays in the worldwide economy. But with 8 million metric tons dumped in the ocean every year, the ocean can’t wait for long term solutions, and we need to act now. Plastic production is expected to double over the next ten years, and we need to make sure the accompanying wave of plastic waste never reaches our ocean.¨
An interesting fact: They found that China and Indonesia are the top sources of plastic bottles, bags and other garbage clogging up global oceans. Together, both nations account for more than a third of plastic detritus in global waters, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
You’d also be surprised at how much fishing nets end up on the ocean shore. Fishing nets are dangerous. An animal gets caught in and just struggles, most animals just try to get themselves untangled but all they are really doing is getting more tangled, so then they end up suffocating.
Crazy fact! Believe it or not but gum is made of plastic so everytime you spit your gum on the side of the road, you harm the environment.
How can we help?
Here are some ways that we are able to help.
Bring the bag.
Sea turtles often mistake plastic bags as jellyfish and ingest them which may lead to blockage or starvation.
Go straw-free.
They have straws that you can carry around that are metal. They just unfold and you are able to use them again and again.
Avoid products that contain microplastics.
This contains glitter, tennis balls, synthetic clothing, and tea bags.
Bring a reusable water bottle.
Try not to throw away water bottles. Some good water bottles to use are hydroflasks.
Say no to balloons.
Even though balloons are fun for birthdays, they can be very dangerous if they aren’t used right.
How are you able to help the oceans? Are you willing to help? Because other wise you wont have that long to live….. Haha just kiding.
