Earth Day was on Saturday (April 22nd) and in Washington, there was a march since the current administration doesn't think that there is an issue with our climate, our home, our planet. I'm here to tell you that there is a problem with our environment and we can help it.
There are many things that are happening to the world right now, in fact you can watch Bill Nye's first episode of his new Netflix show to learn more about it. But what I will focus on in this article is the amount of plastic in the ocean - because its a f*ck ton. I'm currently researching about it for a class project, but I wanted to share it with y'all because its really important.
Plastic in the ocean leads to four issues that affect both human and marine life.
1. Plastic is mistaken as food sources for marine animals.
The first is as the plastic litter breaks down from the UV light (sunlight), many species have been reported to “mistake more plastic for their natural food source and ingest more plastic as they feed”. This causes animals like sea turtles to confuse plastic sandwich bags for jellyfish and for seabirds to be found to contain plastic objects in their guts that could be passed on to chicks. Organisms that mistakingly eat plastic end up poisoning, choking and dying.
Look at this photo for longer than your comfortable with. Look at the pretty colors that were once inside this bird's body. Those plastics are still in perfect condition. If you don't want your kids to chew on plastic, then why would you leave it in the sand for a bird too?
I know you have had to see this on social media somewhere. But seriously: tell me which on holds the jellyfish for sea turtles to feed on?
2. Plastic can be large enough to carry organisms to new places.
The second issue is plastic can be big enough to hold a small ecosystem with it can carry exotic species to new lands. In other words: some species, either marine or terrestrial, will find a piece of plastic that is big enough to carry them along with the current and once the plastic has reached a new shore, so has the species. For a species to move to a new locations without the proper adaptions can be harmful to the species if it doesn't evolve fast enough.
This picture is plastic just floating in the ocean, its called flotsam because it was deliberately left behind by some people. Under the flotsam, fish in the Oceanic province (a.k.a. the middle of the ocean) use the floating debris as a way to create a new home. This can be beneficial since the middle of the ocean can be considered a desert, but it sucks at the same time because those fish or bigger animals that use the plastic as a home also get stuck in the same plastic.
3. Boats and cruise ships are affected, too.
The third issue has a direct impact on human way of life: boats used for transportation and fishing are damaged by the plastic pollutants in the water. It is estimated to cost the British coast guard US$2.8million in order to rescue 286 vessels that reported 'fouled propellers' due to plastic. Cleaning up Marine debris costed the Scottish fishing economy US$17 million pre year because the fishing people found more plastic in their nets than fish themselves .
That is tax money. Yes, I gave European examples, but thats because the only information I found was on those European countries and I don't think we as Americans would be happy with the numbers I would post anyway. But think about it - all that money could be saved or put to better use than helping a boat that has a plastic Poland Spring bottle in the engine - if only you had cleaned up after yourself on your day trip to the shore.
4. There are certain governments/communities that depend on tourism and beaches littered with plastic doesn't help.
The fourth issue is the public's perspective of the beaches littered with plastic. This can be called the "aesthetic intangible costs". Governments of small islands may depend on tourism for money, but if plastic and litter are washing on shore dirtying the beaches, tourists will not come to the island. Trust me, the government thing is another research paper waiting to be put on Odyssey.
I mean look at this picture, it is an Instagram picture waiting to be posted. But no one will because there is so much garbage distracting the pretty view.
Guys, its not that hard to clean up after yourselves at home, in public or on a beach. There is a reason your preschool teachers taught you the 'clean up' song. Plastic in the ocean affects us as humans both on an economic level and survival level. If we were to clean up our spots on the beach and recycle the proper plastics and get rid of other wastes, we would be able to eat more fish (to our proper likeness) and keep our food chains and ecosystems in tact or we would not be spending money on fixing boats damaged by plastic.
