Impacts on Wildlife
Plastic impacts wildlife who live in the air and the sea to great extremes.
Scientists have found plastic fragments in hundreds of species around the world, including 44% of all seabird species, 43% of all marine mammal species, and a 2018 study even found plastic in every sea turtle they studied. Ingesting these fragments is often fatal. When animals ingest plastic waste, it can block their digestive tracts. Animals can also become entangled in larger pieces of plastic, which can lead to suffocation, strangulation, drowning, infection, or starvation.
Washingtonians have seen these impacts firsthand. In 2010, a California gray whale died on the shores of the Puget Sound. Autopsies indicated that its stomach contained a pair of pants, a golf ball, more than 20 plastic bags, small towels, duct tape, and surgical gloves.
Seabirds that feed on the ocean surface are especially prone to ingesting floating plastic debris. Adult seabirds will feed foraged plastic debris to their chicks, resulting in detrimental effects on chick growth and survival. One study found that approximately 98% of chicks sampled contained plastic and the quantity of plastic being ingested was increasing over time.
To put wildlife over waste, we should reduce the use of harmful plastic that pollutes our environment.
Photo attribution: (Header) Thomas Lipke, (Top to Bottom) Goeff Brooks, Brian Yurasits, Brain Yurasits