Comprehensive Report: Plastic Pollution and Marine Life Consequences

This report provides a detailed analysis of plastic pollution's devastating impact on marine life. It identifies plastic materials like polystyrene, nurdles, and plastic bags as major contributors to oceanic debris, emphasizing rivers as significant waste sources. The report highlights the entanglement of marine animals in discarded fishing lines, ingestion of plastic by various species, and the resultant starvation, suffocation, and infection. It explores the impact on major species like dolphins and sea birds, and the dangers of plastic bottles. The report also discusses the toxic elements in plastic, and its pollution of land, water, and air. The report suggests measures like reducing plastic use, recycling, banning microbeads, and public awareness to mitigate the problem and protect marine ecosystems. The report references key studies on plastic waste input, litter effects on marine life, and international policies to reduce plastic pollution.

IMPACT OF PLASTIC
POLLUTION ON MARINE
LIFE

Plastic pollution is one of the most
significant types of pollution which can
adversely affect human food supplies.
In oceans, Polystyrene pieces and
nurdles are the most common types
of plastic combined with plastic bags
and food containers constitutes the
majority of oceanic debris.

Rivers are considered as major source
of waste in water leads to impact on
marine life. This leads to plastic
pollution, found in the form of plastic
materials left behind by the boatmen in
the sea.

Healthy oceans are the life support systems for the planet, as it
provides 97 per cent of the earth’s livable habitat and a home
to more than 70,000 species. Discarded plastic fishing lines
trap and entangle turtles and seabirds, and other mammals.
Therefore, one should save oceans as these species only have
one home to survive.

Causes of plastic pollution in
Oceans
Plastic materials or waste is often
mishandled, or left behind by the
people in the beaches. The other causes
or source of pollution in oceans
consists of sewage, chemical release
from the industries, land runoff and
large scale oil spills.
Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into
the ocean kill as many as 1 million sea creatures
every year.

Impact of Plastic Pollution on Marine life
Plastic pollution has affected over 267 species
worldwide as a result of ingestion, starvation,
suffocation, infection and entanglement. 50-
80% of all sea turtles are found dead due to
ingestion of plastic materials. Plastic ingestion
has been found by the Seabirds which feed from
the ocean surface .The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service estimates that up to a million seabirds
are killed by plastic debris per year; whereby,
60% seabird species have ingested pieces of
plastic. Failure to take measures, this figure
could rise to 99% by year 2050.

Impact on Major Species
Dolphins are the major species in the oceans,
considered as intelligent marine creatures, unlikely to
ingest plastic. They are prone to the issues like
infection and contamination from the prey. Three
hundred thousand dolphins are killed each year in the
ocean due to discarded fishing. Along with dolphins,
many other sea birds have been eating plastic,
mistakenly as their food. This has led to the huge
destruction of the marine life over years (Jambeck et al.,
2015).
• Animals and plants that cannot survive
in extreme temperatures perish.
• Animals who are most often the victims
of plastic debris consist of crocodiles,
turtles, dolphins, sharks, fish, crab, and
sea birds.

Drink bottles are one of the
most common type of plastic
waste in oceans.
100000 bottles are bought
every minute, and only 7% of
the bottles are turned into new
bottles.

Disadvantages of Plastic Bottles
DISADVANTAGES
Hard to
decompose
Non-
renewable
Hard to
reuse
Difficult
to
recycle
Toxic
Threat to
animals and
other sea-birds
The above-mentioned are the major disadvantages of the
plastic pollution, within environment. Reduction of the
use of plastic can prevent or slow down the incidence of
death of animals in the sea-water.

Turtles cannot distinguish between
plastic bags and jellyfish, due to which
they consume plastic. Plastic bags
once consumed leads to internal
blockage and usually death.
Sea-birds are beginning to unintentionally
feed their chicks plastic, mistaking it for the
food.
The polluted air and water inside the oceans,
or seas causes major issues, such as
respiratory problems to the sea animals, and
other birds. This disturbs the ecosystem.

Plastic pollution harms environment
Plastic contains toxic elements or substances,
which can cause land, water, air pollution.
Burning of plastic in the open air, leads to the
environmental pollution from the release of
poisonous chemicals.
Poisonous air is inhaled by the humans and
other mammals, causing several respiratory
problems.
Plastic pollution affects our environment, by
creating a damage to the soil.
One third of the plastic waste ends up in
the soil or freshwater. Micro plastics ends
up in our soils each year.
It integrates with the soil fauna, and affects their
health, and other soil functions.

• Fishing nets is considered as major aspects of
plastic pollution, as commercial fishing is an
economic necessity for many parts of the
world.
• The nets used in the industry for large scale
trolling operations are made of plastic.
• This industry has made major contribution to
the problem of plastic pollution, affecting the
lives of marine animals (Kühn et al., 2015).

Plastic waste kills up
to a million of
seabirds a year, and
plastic in the ocean
affect both, small and
large size animal
(Van et al., 2016).
This reduces the
growth of pathogens
in the ocean, and
affects marine life.
Air pollution and other
types of pollution is also
affected by the plastic
pollution.
Plastic pollution negatively
impacts the natural
environment, and create
problems for plants,
wildlife and human
population.
Plastic pollution
creates poisonous,
especially to the affect
the humans and
animals.
Plastic ingestion
reduces the
storage volume
of the stomach,
causing
starvation.
THE PLASTIC PROBLEM

• Reduce the use of plastic, and
recycle to protect the species in
the marine water.
• Reducing the use of plastic
straw, for example in
restaurants to reduce the
negative aspects of marine
pollution (Wilcox, 2016).
Plastic-ware at home can be
reduced to ensure effective
management of the waste.

• The resolution of the problem of plastic
pollution is essential to preserve the
damage to the environment and other sea-
birds.
• One should educate self about the ways
plastic affects the sustainability of
environment. As the use of plastic shopping
bags are the most common cause leading
to the plastic pollution. Use of reusable
shopping bags is important to reduce the
pollution (Xanthos & Walker, 2017).
• Products containing micro-beads must be
banned to prevent pollution.

Conclusion
• To conclude, one should emphasise on
the aspect of environmental protection
strategies.
• Recycle the plastics used and the ones
not in need.
• Refuse the use of straws, and leaving
behind the plastic materials in the sea or
ocean.
• Proper management of disposal and
public awareness would lead to effective
change.
• Reuse and recycling must be done to

References
Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A. &
Law, K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the
ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771.
Kühn, S., Rebolledo, E. L. B. & van Franeker, J. A. (2015). Deleterious effects of
litter on marine life. In Marine anthropogenic litter (pp. 75-116). Springer, Cham.
Van Sebille, E., Spathi, C. & Gilbert, A. (2016). The ocean plastic pollution
challenge: towards solutions in the UK. Grant. Brief. Pap, 19, 1-16.
Wilcox, C., Mallos, N. J., Leonard, G. H., Rodriguez, A. & Hardesty, B. D.
(2016). Using expert elicitation to estimate the impacts of plastic pollution on
marine wildlife. Marine Policy, 65, 107-114.
Xanthos, D. & Walker, T. R. (2017). International policies to reduce plastic marine
pollution from single-use plastics (plastic bags and microbeads): a review. Marine
pollution bulletin, 118(1-2), 17-26.