I promise not to be such a downer forever.  The next post will be happy. But this one is a sad one about ocean creatures with plastic inside them.  And it’s got a whole bunch of links.

Fish.  ABC news recently featured a a short flick about trash in fish discovered by the 5 Gyres research team. The first point is that you should read the 5 Gyres blog.  It is amazing. These people are amazing. The second point is that plastics are obviously landing smack dab in our food chain.  This time, plastic makes its appearance in a dolphinfish or Mahi Mahi, featured on many a plate in a seafood restaurant near you. If that doesn’t really get to you, because who eats the plastic chunk anyways, maybe this will.

NOAA tells us that plastic debris in the oceans can act kind of like a magnet for all kinds of toxins such as PCBs. To the point that the little old pen cap, for example, can house more than 100 times the pollutant load of the surrounding water.  Incase you’ve forgotten, I would send you to the Toxic Nation glossary to remind yourself of the health effects of PCBs and other toxins.

And read more lovely things on NOAA’s site here or download their pdf on marine debris.  However, before you do, make a mental note to not refer to this stuff as “marine debris”, as my friend Manuel from Plastic Pollution Coalition pointed out to me.  Debris to me sounds like bull kelp and cedar bark on a beach.  And this is pollution we are talking about folks.  Debris is a term (probably) created by the plastic industry to deter us from freaking out.  Which we are anyways.  Thankfully.

So, with more plastic than plankton in some seas, wonder where else this stuff ends up? I’ve already featured the albatross, so the next poster child is:

Whale(s) killed by plastic (credit: LifeInItaly.com)

Those seven whales were found on a beach with a whole lot of our plastic trash in their bellies.  Enough to “strangle their stomachs” as the article states. Just google marine mammal + entanglements + plastic.  You will find dolphins and all sorts of things.  Like a sea otter mom trying to get a plastic bag off its baby courtesy of Save Our Shores. 1.5 million marine mammals die from entanglements each year…and that’s just mammals.

Then there are the smaller guys:

Plastic inside a jellyfish (credit: 5 Gyres)

What the H is that plastic doing in there?!  I’ve been hearing lately that if we continue to treat our oceans as we are, the only thing we will be eating are the jellies.  Guess not.  Anyways, Google “jellyfish taking over the world“, or some other version of this absurd statement, to read more about that.

Also, if fish, whales, and jellies are not your thing, please click here to see a video about  plastic and sea turtles from pluckfastic.org.  Everything living is getting caught up in this stuff.

Alright.  Enough.  Two glasses of wine down and it’s time to wind down.  Maybe watch an episode of Lost to ease my mind… **Oh man. I can’t stop!  I just Googled “plastics + Oahu Hawaii” (where Lost was filmed), and found this link to someone making art from plastic bits off that beach.