“Despite global treaties to prevent dumping at sea and minimize landbased sources, and increasing efforts worldwide to protect water quality, the quantity of marine debris in the world’s oceans is increasing”
— California Ocean Protection Council
A Growing Problem
An estimated 80% of marine debris comes from land-based sources, while only 20% comes from sea-based sources, like shipping and boating.
Roughly 60–80% of all marine debris, and 90% of floating debris is plastic.
Plastic resin polymers are so durable that it can take hundreds of years for plastics to break down at sea, and some may never truly biodegrade in the marine environment.
Plastic marine debris can also carry dangerous chemicals, like PCBs byproduct of DDT), which are not water-soluble and adhere to plastic.
Marine debris is ubiquitous and can be found from remote artic regions to highly populated urban beaches.
The North Pacific Gyre is home to the world’s largest floating island of trash that is estimated to be 5 million square miles—larger than the entire United States
A study conducted by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in the North Pacific Gyre found six more times the mass of plastic particles than plankton in these waters.
Marine Impacts
Marine debris has injured or killed at least 267 species world-wide, primarily through ingestion and entanglement.
More than 1 million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, and countless fish have died annually in the north pacific from ingesting or becoming entangled in marine debris.
Commonly ingested items include bottle caps, cigarette lighters, plastic bags, and polystyrene pieces.
Plastic marine debris can attract dangerous chemicals present in the marine environment, like PCBs and DDT. Researchers have found concentrations of these chemicals on plastics in the marine environment at nearly one million times background levels.
Marine life and birds can easily confuse expanded polystyrene, bottle caps, cigarette bags, polystyrene pieces, and “nurdles” (small plastic pellets/resin raw material in plastic manufacturing) for food. Ingestion of plastics can reduce the appetite of seabirds and marine life and inhibit nutrient absorption, causing possible death by starvation.
Styrene, a building block of expanded polystyrene, is a suspected carcinogen and neurotoxin that medical evidence, scientific study, as well as the Food and Drug Administration suggest leaches from polystyrene containers into food and beverages.
Abandoned (derelict) fishing gear, can drift thousands of miles trapping, entangling and often killing fish, sea turtles, marine mammals, and other marine life. Entangled animals may also suffer reduced mobility, which can increase susceptibility to predation.