Nov 6 - Plastics Harming World's Oceans
Plastics makes up 60-80% of marine debris according to a new Greenpeace report. This plastic trash is also causing the death for a variety of sea life, birds and sea lions, especially in a trash vortex in the North Pacific Ocean. The report, "Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans," is a compilation of published studies on plastics in the marine environment since 1990, and comes days after a study in the Journal of Science saying the world's fish and seafood populations will collapse by 2048 if current trends in habitat destruction and pollution continue. Jane Kay of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Plastic trash caught up in a swirling vortex in the North Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii is killing sea life, choking birds and fish and entangling seals and sea lions, a new Greenpeace report says.Soda six-pack rings, plastic bags, condoms, beach toys and stray nets -- much of it washed off U.S. shores and some tossed directly into the ocean -- float in a mix of plastic pollution that injures hungry animals as big as whales and as small as zooplankton, according to a report by the international environmental group.
Scientists traveling aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza said Sunday they now are gathering firsthand data on threats to the world's oceans from pollution, overfishing and whaling. As part of that investigation, they released the report, a compilation of studies published since 1990 on plastics in the marine environment.
Click to read the Greenpeace Report here.
What You Can Do
- Read more about what CAW is doing with plastic issues