Tuesday 17 October 2017

Plastic is #NotWhaleFood

Every year, over 5 million tonnes of plastic ends up in the world’s oceans.

Plastic pollution poses a serious problem for the creatures who live in the oceans.

According to Whale and Dolphin Conservation,  56% of all whale and dolphin species have been recorded eating marine plastics that they've mistaken for food. In a 2006 report, Plastic Debris in the World’s Oceans, Greenpeace stated that over 267 different species are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of plastic debris in the oceans. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration says that plastic debris kills an estimated 100,000 marine mammals every year, along with millions of birds and fishes. That's a lot of death in the oceans.

Plastic that is ingested can then block the animal's stomach and intestines causing it to slowly starve or find it's way into their brains, where it can change their behaviour. Often parent birds and turtles are seen trying to feed their offspring with plastic debris.

Plastic is #NotWhaleFood. We need to use less plastic and dispose more carefully of that we do use.

Here's a very long article from Coastal Care on the issue

Meanwhile, Whale and Dolphin Conservation are asking people to join their #NotWhaleFood campaign, you can find out more here or take part on Twitter

5 comments:

Lynn said...

Thank you for sharing this - so important to educate the world about this.

Lowcarb team member said...

Thanks for sharing this ...

All the best Jan

Magyar said...

two shades
the grace and the vial
plastic hypocrite.

__ Lives have been saved by medicinal plastics. But, lives have been lost by world wide humanic abuse/misuse of plastics, an insult to those the good.
__ I litter(./?) Tossing an apple core, orange peel, or peach pit into the woods along a roadside... I know (believe) that that waste is of value to our earth that provides, the rot becomes food for the forests. Too, plastic must be returned to... from where it came.
__ The town of Plymouth Massachusetts has recently passed a regulation that commercial outlets must no longer bundle the customer's purchases in plastic bags, they must now use recycled paper bags! One grand step forward!
__ I remember: milk and tonic in reusable glass bottles; coffee to go in a >paper< cup; old newspaper used as packing (not styrofoam); a lot of household trash went into the compost pile; coffee brewed in the glass percolator, not those plastic (one serving) brew-cups. Tea bags!
__ Plastic has its use... but, we need to control IT, and not allow IT, to control us and our children's future.
__ Sorry to be so long winded. _m

RG said...

Gotta keep reminding and reminding ... thanks

Crafty Green Poet said...

Thanks Magyar, of course there are good plastics too and yes we've got into the habit of using plastics where once we used paper etc.