You may not realise this, but out of the 260 million tons of plastic the world produces each year, around 10 percent of it ends up in our oceans as plastic pollution! This article was a bit impromptu and was as a result of seeing a shocking image of plastic pollution this morning. But not only plastic pollution, it’s the rope that is ensnaring Sea Turtles (see video below).
Plastic pollution in the ocean: Every river leads to the ocean! 26 tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans each year. You’ll find plastic from the remote uninhabited islands to Antarctica; to the deepest ocean trenches, including the Mariana Trench. Ocean creatures are being caught up in plastic including turtles, sharks, dolphins and seabirds.
The best way to do more diving is to book yourself on a scuba diving liveaboard. You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards using the following window:
This article is more about the shocking images of how plastic pollution in the ocean is killing our planet. If you aren’t shocked yourself after watching these few plastic pollution gifs I’ve shared, then I’ve not got my message across.
Plastic Pollution – “Plastic is everywhere. Useful and convenient, it’s also a massive pollution problem, especially in our oceans. Turtles and seabirds become ensnared in discarded plastics, and tiny microplastics are eaten by pretty much everything. We need to solve this problem at the source, and produce less plastic in the first place.”
“A truckload of plastic enters the ocean every single minute and UK supermarkets produce 800,000 tonnes every year. With production increasing, that’s set to rise.”
Plastic pollution in the ocean – some shocking images of what we’re doing with plastic waste!
Don’t be the one who is destroying our planet and killing our oceans and the creatures that live in it. Don’t be irresponsible with your plastic waste. Do your bit for Planet Earth.
We are all guilty of using plastic. It’s almost impossible to do a supermarket shop and to not buy food enclosed in plastic in one form or another. But really the only way to solve the plastic pollution problem is for each of us to do our little bit. By recycling and by not throwing things into the rivers, seas or oceans.
Take a look at these shocking plastic pollution images.
Plastic polluted river in Guatemala
This river of plastic is quite shocking and is in Guatemala. Guatemala has two coastlines, one of the Pacific Ocean and the other on the Caribbean Sea. I don’t know which sea or ocean this river flows, but really it shouldn’t be either.
Guatemalans fight plastic waste in polluted river The Ocean Cleanup organization has installed a trash fence on the Las Vacas River, outside Guatemala City, to block plastics and other rubbish from reaching the ocean.
Blue Planet Ocean – floating plastic pollution
Whilst on the one hand these floating plastic rafts provide refuge and shelter for small fish, it’s not good that plastic like this is ending up in the sea.
Eventually, and I mean eventually, this plastic will breakdown into small particles which is being ingested by animals of the oceans. This will and is coming back to haunt us, as we are eating the fish of the ocean that are polluted with plastic.
This one shocked me possibly more than most of these gif images of ocean plastic pollution. To see how the waves of the sea are suffocated by so much plastic is quite frankly almost unforgivable.
I don’t know where in the world this image was taken (sorry I should know), but wherever it is, the country concerned should be embarrassed. This country should be punished through trade sanctions or something similar until they clean their act up!
Blue Planet II – plastic bag floating in the ocean
Whilst this lone plastic bag isn’t as shocking as the shear volume of plastic in some of the above videos, it identifies how this could look to an animal of the ocean.
Blue Planet and Sir David Attenborough have started an extra wave of enlightenment for people to be aware of the plastic pollution in the ocean.
I hate to see sights like this sea turtle entangled in human pollution. It’s likely that turtles like this will eventually die as a result of the ensnarement.
TURTLE RESCUE AT SEA & PLASTIC POLLUTION [Side Adventure #11] Off the coast of Central America, we find a juvenile Hawksbill Sea Turtle, badly tangled in plastic debris. When we jump in, we are amazed at the amount of sea life this floating debris has attracted (hundreds of small fish, a large school of dorado and a pod of dolphins!), and the potential impact plastic can have in our oceans becomes VERY clear! Plastics are not only a danger to sea life that can become entangled in it – many animals also inadvertently consume plastic as food!
An entangled Sea Turtle
Another image of an entangle sea turtle, a horrible and shocking sight to be seen!
How ocean plastic threatens sea turtles The mounting problem of plastic pollution poses an even greater danger to sea turtles than most ocean dwellers.
Plastic Ocean United Nations – Plastic – both a wonderful invention and a scourge on our planet. Over 300 million tons will be produced this year. Most is never recycled and remains on our land and in our seas for ever. Our story shows the damage to all creatures who depend on the ocean for their food – from birds… to us.
I wanted to highlight the fact that all rivers lead to the ocean. This may seem like an obvious fact, but I don’t think we all think about it in that way. Especially those that use rivers and streams as their dumping ground.
This problems is highlighted even more so below, with a dumper truck off-loading waste directly into a fast-flowing river. The fast flowing river simply means it takes less time for the waste to arrive into which ever ocean it flows into.
Trash dumping into a fast-flowing river
Take a look into the background to see how fast flowing the river is. This plastic pollution is only going to end up in one place and that’s in the ocean! As I said earlier, all rivers lead to the ocean.
This is shocking and the only way it’s going to be stopped is by governments putting a ban on countries who don’t follow good plastic and waste pollution guidelines.
We all share the ocean, but the rivers themselves are on each country’s land mass. We need to look after our oceans and quite clearly this dumper-truck owner has no care for the planet. This is either from lack of education or because they simply don’t care!
This makes me cringe when I see how the rope around this turtle’s neck has cut into its skin. This is terrible, but hopefully all is well with this beautiful creature.
Sea Turtle Entangled in Ghost Net Rescued This video shows the detrimental effects of so-called ghost nets on marine animals.
I hope you’ve got something from this article about plastic pollution in the ocean
I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkeling, in the comments below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof Gopro’s!
I’d particularly like to hear from you in the comments below about what you might be doing to help the planet be rid of plastic pollution.
If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkeling or scuba diving (or specifically about plastic pollution in the ocean), please comment below with your questions.
There will also be many more articles about scuba diving (and snorkeling) for you to read and learn about these fabulous sports.
Have fun and be safe!
Plastic pollution in the ocean (The facts about plastic pollution)
Related Posts:
Solmar V Liveaboard Review (Shark Diving Boat Reviews) Mexico's Solmar V liveaboard yacht has been rated 'Fabulous' by scuba guests who've stayed on this Pelagic Fleet diving boat of Mexico. Reviews include words like “Absolutely incredible!” “This was…
Are Bull Sharks Aggressive: Do They Attack People On Purpose? Bull sharks are extremely aggressive animals and are known to attack people, but not on purpose. Bull sharks are dangerous because they are aggressive creatures and because they migrate up…
8 Best Places To Scuba Dive With Turtles ( Top Dive… The best place to scuba dive with turtles includes The Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea in Egypt, Bonaire, Barbados and Akumal in the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of…
Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
