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The Effects of Garbage in the Oceans on Animals

It's difficult to imagine how large some oceans are and equally difficult to imagine how much garbage they contain. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- remote area of the Pacific Ocean that is 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii -- is the world's largest garbage dump. At the time of publication, it contains approximately 3.5 million tons of trash, mostly plastic. The effects of garbage both here and in other oceans negatively impact animals.

Entanglements
- Seabirds dive into the water to catch unsuspecting fish with their sharp beaks. In areas with high concentrations of plastic debris, birds frequently get entangled in the plastic trash, which they mistake as fish or fish eggs. When entangled, the birds might suffocate, drown or slowly starve to death because the debris restricts them from flying -- rendering them all but immobile. And it's not just birds. According to Kimberly Amaral of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), due to fishing nets, northern fur seals have experienced a 50 percent decline in their population since the 1970s.
Animals Ingesting Trash
- Sea turtles often mistake floating plastic bags for jellyfish, their preferred food. Ingesting garbage by mistake can cause malnutrition, starvation and intestinal problems that lead to death. Similarly, seabirds mistake trash for food, which causes a blockage in their intestinal track and prevents them from digesting food. According to "The Effects of Plastic on Marine Animals," seabirds that confuse garbage for food return to their nests and feed their young with regurgitated trash -- as a result, the infants aren't likely to survive. More than 260 other types of marine species are negatively affected by garbage in ocean waters, according to "National Geographic."
Cancer Threat
- Plastic breaks down over hundreds of years in an ocean. But studies revealed by "National Geographic" suggest some types of plastics break down rapidly, as fast as within a year of hitting warm tropical ocean waters. As plastic products break down, they release a harmful string of polystyrene components, which are known cancer-inducing toxins. Worse yet is that polystyrene components are heavier than water so they sink, affecting animals that reside in deeper waters. Although these harmful chemicals are in their highest concentrations in areas with heavy pollution, the currents carry them much farther.
Action
- Governments are tightening laws and regulations on ocean littering, and manufacturers are packaging their products with less plastic. People are encouraged to purchase fewer plastic products. Recycling helps limit what gets dumped in the ocean. However, regardless of all these efforts, ocean pollution continues to rise, straining the lives of ocean-dwelling animals.

Nature