Drowning In An Ocean Of Plastic

THE greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.

- Vanessa Papas

ON a boat off Costa Rica, a biologist was forced to use pliers from a Swiss army knife to try to extract a plastic straw from an olive ridley sea turtle’s nostril as it writhed in agony. Last year, a juvenile sperm whale was found on the coast of Spain with 30kg of plastic in its gut. Just months later, in Thailand, a pilot whale was killed by 80 plastic shopping bags. Closer to home, thousands of seabirds living along our beautiful coastline die as a result of plastic. In some cases, the skeletons have entirely biodegraded; yet the stomach-size plastic piles are still present. Scientists warn that in 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish in the sea.

From being strangled in nets, chocking on plastic and other gruesome and cruel fatal encounters with man-made garbage, creatures worldwide are dying from materials we toss away.