Ocean plastic research is a relatively new field, the billions upon billions of items of plastic waste choking our oceans, lakes, and rivers and piling up on land is more than unsightly and harmful to plants and wildlife. About 8 million metric tons of plastic are thrown into the ocean annually. Of those, 236,000 tons are micro plastics– tiny pieces of broken-down plastic smaller than our little fingernail. There is more plastic than natural prey at the sea surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which means that organisms feeding at this area are likely to have plastic as a major component of their diets. For instance, sea turtles by-caught in fisheries operating within and around the patch can have up to 74% (by dry weight) of their diets composed of ocean plastics. By 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than there are fish (by weight).
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