Last year in August, Thailand’s charming beauty, Marium, an eight-month-old orphaned dugong died after ingesting plastic. Its autopsy revealed that numerous small plastic particles were found in her intestine.
But it is not the first time that sea animals have been victimized due to dumping of plastic in oceans. This pollution has affected at least 270 different species which include 86% of sea turtles, 44% of seabirds and 43% of marine mammals. Every year around 100,000 marine turtles and mammals are brutally killed due to plastic ingestion.
Plastic is silently entering our food chain by accumulating in our oceans at an alarming rate. It is wreaking havoc on our wildlife and polluting our beaches. This is growing problem due to our addiction of use-and-toss items. When we throw plastic bags in ocean, the birds and mammals often mistake them as food. Every year, more than 01 million birds and thousands of marine animals die as a result of plastic pollution.
The sources of plastic are litter, industrial pollution, garbage management, commercial fishing vessels and cargo and cruise ships. The litter is accumulated by pedestrians, motorists and beach visitors. The industrial pollution is caused by powders and pallets which are dumped into oceans.
The sea life is harmed by plastic in many ways which include entanglement, ingestion and chemicals. The large number of marine turtles die each year after they become entangled in rubbish of the oceans and also on beaches due to discarded fishing gear and six pack plastic holders.
According to report, in USA, 115 marine species are affected due to entanglement. These species include sea turtles, mammals. Birds, monk seals, fish and crab. Plastics degrade and convert into chemical sponges. The sea animals when ingest the plastic also ingest these chemicals leading to bio magnification. The process of passing of these toxic chemicals to next trophic level is called bio magnification. These toxic chemicals become part of food chain and ultimately reach to us.
The most affected species are sea turtles and sea birds. The ingested plastics and tar are main reasons of non-natural death of sea turtles. Plastics bags float in the oceans like jellyfish and sea turtles mistakenly ingest them. Similarly, small plastics like bottle caps are mistaken by seabirds for food.
So what can we do to reduce plastic pollution? As an individual, we should bring our own bag or refuse plastic bags at checkout counter. We must clean up the beaches and we could also offer our volunteer services to pick up trash. We must seek those products which are without packaging and we should also educate others. On larger scale, government should ban plastic bag use.
Thank you for reading! Stay Safe!👋😌
It's unfortunate how human kind is not realizing the aftermath of plastic pollution. In one of my post I had showed how a mountain full of plastic has been created and now taking years to clean up. We are already seeing the effects, and its high time, we must get rid of plastics.
Congrats for raising awareness for our actual challenges. Keep up the good work!
How's the lockdown going?
Thank you. Things are going normal these days in lockdown.
People who rule us imposed measures because they claim we have 1 deadly virus . i have a curiosity:
What's the proof for our deadly virus ?
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Very sad when see this polution😪