Ocean Plastic Pollution Is Affecting The Environment

Every time you eat fish, you are eating small pieces of plastic. According to Ocean Plastic Pollution, “Fish in the North Pacific ingest 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic each year, which can cause intestinal injury and death and transfers plastic up the food chain to bigger fish and marine mammals. A recent study found that a quarter of fish at markets in California contained plastic in their guts, mostly in the form of plastic microfibers.” Our ocean is being polluted with plastics and it is affecting the environment. This is serious problem because marine life and ecosystems are being affected by this problem which was caused by us. Plastic is continuously polluting our oceans and endangering the life in these waters. The problem is that our ocean is being polluted with plastic. Items from plastic bags to water bottles are being thrown out into our waters and affecting the environment. There is, if not more, billions of pounds of plastic in the ocean. 40% of Earth’s

An example of the effects of plastic pollution cited from Ocean Plastics Pollution, “Thousands of seabirds and sea turtles, seals and other marine mammals are killed each year after ingesting plastic or getting entangled in it.”. The pollution of plastics are putting ecosystems in danger like the Great Barrier Reef located in Australia which is the largest living thing on Earth. A study shows that plastics release toxic chemicals into the ocean as they break down in the ocean. A problem with this is that it takes on average 450 years for plastic to degrade and breakdown. Once they breakdown, they release toxins and chemicals into the ocean and anything in the water is exposed to it. One of the chemicals they release is BPA which is a manmade chemical used to make plastics and such like. Marine life absorbs these chemicals into their body as they eat plastic and this is dangerous to their