Marine Debris: Plastic Is Killing Marine Animals

Plastic is Killing Marine Animals
“Marine debris is typically described as any persistent, manufactured, or processed solid material discarded, disposed of, or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment” (Richard C. Thompson 11). If this is the case, how does marine debris end up in and around the water? According to Kimberly Amaral with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, marine debris can reach the ocean three ways; being flushed down the toilet or washed down the drain, ultimately ending up in the ocean; an object getting carried down the landscape or swept into the sewer by rainfall; or items thrown off a ship, landing directly in the ocean (whoi.edu). There are also three major problems caused by this marine debris ending up
Unfortunately, plastic does not break down into organic substances, which means that instead of breaking down into natural components that will go back into the earth, plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic until they become nurdles, which are small pellets of plastic. This opposes an issue because as plastic gets smaller, not only does it turn into a large pile of nurdles that can be ingested by seabirds and fish, it also releases the chemicals that are contained within it. According to The National Geographic, Bisphenol A, a major component in plastic, is one of the chemicals that gets released when it breaks down. Bisphenol A is a chemical that is harmful to marine animals in a number of ways. For example, algae gains it’s nutrients through absorption. Algae can absorb bisphenol A, which will affect the entire food web in the end. Small fish tend to eat algae and zooplankton, and when a fish consumes algae that has absorbed bisphenol A, the concentration of the chemical will increase for the fish through a process called bioaccumulation, which causes the chemical to build up in the body of the fish. Not only are these fish at risk of death by toxic chemicals, but when a larger fish eats the smaller fish, they are also consuming the bisphenol A, only an even larger concentration of the chemical. This will continue up the food chain, until the largest marine animals, for example, a dolphin, consumes a fish and gains a high enough concentration of bisphenol A to kill them (nationalgeographic.org). This process is called bioaccumulation, and it has a great impact on the health of marine