Pollution is an emerging issue that our oceans are experiencing. Plastic, light, sound and chemical pollution originate from human activities.
Chemical pollution has been extensively assessed in the past decades, especially due to high industrial development in coastal areas and pesticides used in agriculture. One might wonder how can pesticides, for example, affect marine ecosystems if they’re used inland. Well, the big problem here is that these products are transported beyond their intended area of action. As a consequence, some of these chemicals have been banned for their associated effects on marine organisms, for example DDT. Even so, every year new compounds are being synthesized to meet the societies’ demands but their effects on aquatic systems and, especially, organisms are mostly unknown.
The concentrations of contaminants observed nowadays in marine organisms rarely impose any immediate lethal effect on individuals. For this reason, one might underestimate its effects on populations since the deleterious effects are not as evident as in other threats, such as in overfishing and habitat degradation, for example. Don’t let the numbers fool you: these organisms might be chronically exposed to these concentrations which, in a long-term, might impact them.
Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans.
There may now be around 5.25 trillion macro and micro-plastic pieces floating in the open ocean. Weighing up to 269,000 tonnes. Plastics consistently make up 60 to 90% of all marine debris studied. Two-thirds of it comes straight from land based sources: litter being left on the beach or washed down rivers and drains from litter being dropped in towns and cities. It comes from industry spills, badly managed landfill sites and bins near the coast or by being flushed down the loo. The remainder is lost at sea such as containers going overboard or lost fishing gear. As we know, plastic is strong, flexible and durable making it extremely useful, however that also means it never really breaks down. A plastic bottle can last for 450 years in the marine environment, slowly fragmenting into smaller and smaller pieces which eventually end up microscopic but never truly go away. This means that every piece of plastic that has ever been produced is still with us, in some form.
With 1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption now containing plastic, the question is no longer are we eating plastic but how bad for us is that? In seawater plastic absorbs chemicals like PCB’s and DDT’s which have been linked to endocrine disruption and even some cancers, becoming more powerful as they work their way up the food chain.
Plastic Polution
8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans daily
Mico Plastics
Around 5.25 trillion macro and micro-plastic pieces floating in the open ocean
Marine Turtles
Recent studies have revealed marine plastic pollution in 100% of marine turtles
The Scale of the Problem
More than 7 billion people produced over 320 million tons of plastic
Plastic Pollution Facts and Stats
Plastic pollution can be found on every beach in the world, from busy tourist beaches to uninhabited, tropical islands everywhere is affected.
In 1950, the world’s population of 2.5 billion produced 1.5 million tons of plastic; in 2016, a global population of more than 7 billion people produced over 320 million tons of plastic. This is set to double by 2034.
Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans.
There may now be around 5.25 trillion macro and micro-plastic pieces floating in the open ocean. Weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.
Plastics consistently make up 60 to 90% of all marine debris studied.
Recent studies have revealed marine plastic pollution in 100% of marine turtles, 59% of whales, 36% of seals and 40% of seabird species examined.
100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually.
