Sustainability In Your Ear: The Ocean Conservancy's Dr. Erin Murphy Documents the Lethality of Ocean Plastics

"Each year, over 11 million metric tons of plastic end up in the ocean, which is like dumping a garbage truck full of plastic every minute. For years, we've known that marine animals eat this debris, but no one had measured exactly how much plastic it takes to kill them. Dr. Erin Murphy, who leads ocean plastics research at the Ocean Conservancy, is the principal author of a major study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

"The study measured how deadly different types of plastic are to sea life, which makes the results especially useful for policymakers. Each finding suggests a clear policy action, such as banning balloon releases like Florida has done, banning plastic bags as in California's SB 54, or improving how fishing gear is marked and recovered. Still, Erin points out that focusing only on certain plastics is not enough. Her team found that even small amounts of any plastic can be dangerous. As she says, "At the end of the day, there is too much plastic in the ocean," and we need big changes at every stage of the plastics life cycle, from production to disposal."

"There's encouraging evidence that interventions work. Communities in Hawaii conducted large-scale beach cleanups and saw the Hawaiian monk seal population rebound. A study published in Science confirmed that bag bans reduce plastic on beaches by 25 to 47%. And Ocean Conservancy's International Coastal Cleanup, now in its 40th year, removed more than a million plastic bags from beaches last year. These actions address a parallel crisis in human health that is building from the same pollution source."

More than 11 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean annually, equivalent to dumping a garbage truck of plastic every minute. More than 10,000 necropsies from 95 species of seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals worldwide were analyzed to establish lethal plastic thresholds by plastic type. Results identify clear policy actions such as banning balloon releases, banning plastic bags, and improving fishing gear marking and recovery. Even small amounts of any plastic can be dangerous. Large-scale cleanups and bag bans reduce beach plastic and have supported species recovery. Macroplastics fragment into microplastics that threaten human health.

Read at Earth911