Impact of Plastic Pollution on Marine Life
Eco-friendly lifestyle is trending in the 21st century and we understand that each contribution matters. People in the United Kingdom are hiring professionals from the Go Rubbish Go website to manage their non-recyclable and non-reusable waste so they don’t end up in landfills. However, all our efforts cannot make a major contribution until everyone, including our industries, starts to take care of the earth. People inhabiting the coastal areas and industrial set-ups are the major contributors to the introduction of plastic waste into the environment which in turn negatively impacts the marine line. This blog post outlines the inevitable influence of plastic pollution on marine life. Let’s get started to learn more.
How Plastic Pollution Impacts the Marine Life
We constantly hear on the news about the big garbage patches having tonnes of waste floating on the surface of the seas or the rescue missions where large aquatic species were freed from abandoned fishing nets after long hours of trapping. Here are the various ways in which those plastic pollutants are declining marine life.
-
Entanglement of Marine Life
Large aquatic animals like whales, dolphins, or turtles are easily trapped in fishing nets and large plastic bags that limit their motion and cause them to starve to death. Whereas, small fish can be trapped in plastic bottles too that we throw away without giving them a second thought. Moreover, the sharp pieces cause their bodies to slush, and these injuries ultimately lead to death. Since the garbage amount in the marine water is huge, it is not an occasional accident.
-
Ingestion of the Plastics
Small bits of plastic give the illusion of the food item to the fish and they end up ingesting them. Upon taking up the plastic as food, they cannot make a way out of the digestive tract of the fish and end up blocking it completely. No food is going to pass down the blocked system and those little animals starve to death. Moreover, if tiny plastics make their way to your plate with your beloved battered fish, they can cause various systemic diseases and cancers.
-
Chemical Toxicity of Plastic
During the production of plastic items, various chemicals are used to bring them in usable form and those chemicals become a permanent part of them. However, these chemicals can leach into the water and be absorbed by the animals floating there. Such chemicals raise life-long health concerns in the aquatic species while disrupting their body systems.
-
Habitat Destruction in the Seas
The vast depth of the seas has developed millions of tiny habitats with calcium deposits like coral reefs and aquatic plants that are like the homes of those amazing creatures while protecting them from falling prey to the large animals. However, the plastic pollutants are damaging those little habitats of the aquatic animals and damaging the balance of the ecosystem.
-
Disruption of the Aquatic Food Chain
The marine life has developed its food chain where the large animals feed on the smaller ones and the cycle goes up to the plankton level. There is a decline in the aquatic populations due to the incidents caused by plastic pollution in the water like the release of chemicals that destroy the reproductive system of marine animals. Thus, the declining population leads to a disruption in the food chain.
Final Words
Plastic pollution is causing inevitable risks to marine life that threaten their life and cause a significant decline in the marine population. Therefore, we have to be careful about our plastic usage, or the future points to more plastic in the seas than fish. If you are unclear about what to do with your household waste, hire a professional from Handy Rubbish Company to do it on your behalf.