Garbage
Garbage has been discarded into the oceans for as long as humans have sailed the seven seas or lived on seashores or near waterways flowing into the sea. Since the 1940s, plastic use has increased dramatically, resulting in a huge quantity of nearly indestructible, lightweight material floating in the oceans and eventually deposited on beaches worldwide. As the graph shows, trash items encompass a variety of materials. Sources of marine debris include: Items that are brought to the beach and left there by beachgoers; Garbage deliberately or accidentally discarded by ships at sea or from offshore oil platforms; and Material carried to sea by rivers and estuaries , especially from large coastal cities. City storm sewers are a significant source of solid waste entering the sea from land sources. Effects on Wildlife Aside from its unsightly appearance and potential impact to human health, marine debris has harmful effects on wildlife. Fish, birds, marine mammals, reptiles, and other animals can become entangled in discarded or lost nets that continue to do what they were designed to do—catch living animals—but now they catch them indiscriminately, a process called ″ghost fishing.″ Items unintended for fishing become traps. Woven plastic onion sacks floating in the sea have entrapped endangered hawksbill sea turtles. Plastic bags become invisible to birds diving for This graph shows the average number of trash items counted for several years along a popular 7-mile stretch of Mustang Island Gulf Beach, Texas. Beverage cans are single drink containers and include plastic bottles; chemical containers are 5-gallon pails and drums of chemicals; green bottles are bleach bottles from Mexico (common on Texas beaches); egg cartons and milk jugs are standard grocery items. sh and are skewered by the birds′ sharp bills, usually resulting in their death. Plastic is also mistaken for food and is eaten at sea by birds, turtles, and even whales. This can choke them, poison them, or simply make them think they are full when this ″food″ has no nutritional value. Many marine animals get entangled in fishing lines used by recreational anglers.