The impact of marine debris

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The impact of marine debris
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Marine Debris

• Courtesy to Conservation Science Institute
  Altered Ocean Blue Planet Society

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• "The United Nations has turned its attention to
  the oceans for World Environment Day, and one of
  the main evildoers is a familiar one - plastic.
  Marine trash, mainly plastic, is killing
  morethan a million seabirds and 100,000
  mammalsand sea turtles each year.
• - Kofi Annan,
• Secretary-General, United Nations, 2004

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Plastic Trash Vortex
There are actually 46,000 pieces of plastic
litter floating in every square mile of ocean. -
UNEP
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Inside the North Pacific Gyre, there is a massive
accumulation of plastic garbage known as Plastic
Soup, The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or The
Pacific Trash Vortex.
- Courtesy to Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau,
Canada
About 20 percent of the plastic in the oceans
comes from ships or offshore platforms the rest
is blown or washed off the land.
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• Ingestion of plastics

Read more
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Albatross chick - gut full of plastic!
- 90 of albatross chicks on Midway Island in the
Pacific Ocean had plastic in their throats
Read more
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What an albatross ate
Read more
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Dead Turtle found in Australia, with guts choked
with marine trash
Read more
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Entanglement of marine animals

• Courtesy to UNEP

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• In 2007, ICC participants found 237 entangled
  animals.
• The percentage of each type of animal entangled
• Birds 35 percent
• Fish 27 percent
• Invertebrates 20 percent
• Mammals 13 percent
• Reptiles 5 percent
• Amphibians lt 1 percent

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Badly entangled flukes of a humpback whale
United States
Read more
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A young Grey Seal entangled in a scrap of trawl
net.  - Sable Island, Canada
Read more
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Freeing Horseshoe crabs from gill nets at -
Mandai, Singapore
Read more
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Crabs entangled by fishing nets at - Lazarus
Island, Singapore
Read more
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The abrasion from movement of the nets
injure/kill the polyps. And injured parts of
corals get overgrown with algae/other organisms
very fast. Lazarus Island, Singapore
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Prevent litter!
By not littering and picking up litter you see,
you may be saving the life of a marine mammal.
Packaging awareness!
Be aware of the packaging on products you
purchase opt for products with less packaging.