12. Plastics in oceans - mismanaged (and ended up in an ocean)

14 million metric tonnes of the world's plastic waste ends up in the oceans each year.

How much of the world's plastic waste is estimated to end up in the oceans annually?

Marine organisms can consume plastic debris either accidentally in the process of feeding or deliberately, mistaking it for food.

How can marine organisms ingest plastic debris?

malnutrition and starvation (fish eat plastic thinking it’s food and feel full but no nutrtion it givin’), suffocation and drowning

what problems does plastic ingestion pose for them?

marine organisms accidentally or intentionally come into contact with debris and become entangled.

Under what circumstances do marine organisms experience entanglement with plastic, and how does it occur?

ghost fishing.

What is the term used to describe the most serious impacts resulting from the accidental loss or intentional disposal of fishing nets?

chemicals contained within the plastic can leach into the water, leading to bioaccumulation and biomagnification in aquatic organisms.

What is one of the significant issues associated with plastic in the ocean, and how does it affect aquatic organisms?

Increase in pollutant in a single organism over its lifetime

What is bioaccumulation?

Magnification of pollutant up food chain

What is biomaginification?

over 1000-years, they break apart into smaller and smaller pieces, eventually creating microplastics.

What happens to plastics as they degrade over time, and what is the eventual outcome of this degradation?

they adsorb chemicals from the water, making them vectors of these toxic substances if they are ingested.

What is a significant concern related to the ingestion of marine microplastics, and how do they become vectors for toxic substances?

once in the ocean, they become trapped within rotating current systems called gyres, creating “garbage islands”.

what happens due to the long lifetime of plastics?

it is unlikely to leave the area until it degrades into smaller microplastics

what happens once a plastic enters a gyre?

GPGP is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world's oceans, located halfway between Hawaii and california

Where is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located, and how does it compare to other offshore plastic accumulation zones?