Plastic waste is littering our oceans and threatening the lives of millions of marine animals. Seals, whales, dolphins, seabirds, fish, crabs and many other sea animals are dying and becoming sick because of this deadly environmental concern. Microplastics are a major part of the issue. Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic which come from larger pieces of plastic that have degraded over time.   Sea animals often eat microplastics because of their small size. In addition, plastic ...

Plastic waste is littering our oceans and threatening the lives of millions of marine animals. Seals, whales, dolphins, seabirds, fish, crabs and many other sea animals are dying and becoming sick because of this deadly environmental concern. Microplastics are a major part of the issue. Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic which come from larger pieces of plastic that have degraded over time.

  Sea animals often eat microplastics because of their small size. In addition, plastic contains toxic chemicals, which can increase the chance of diseases and affect reproduction. After ingesting microplastics, seals, and other animals, may suffer for months or years before they die. Ghost gear is the name given to fishing equipment which has been abandoned or lost in the sea. Nets and other man-made equipment can entangle and kill whales, dolphins, turtles, seals and other sea animals. In 2014, an estimated 15 to 51 trillion microplastic particles were floating in the world's oceans, weighing between 93,000 and 236,000 tonnes.

  It's likely that as the volume of ghost gear in our oceans increases, the volume of microplastics will increase too. We urgently need more research to understand how ghost gear contributes to the microplastics problem.

(https://www.worldgnimalprotection.org/news/)

Plastic waste is littering our oceans and threatening the lives of millions of ______.