Skip to content

Facts about Ocean Pollution

plastic-causes-death-to-marine-creatures

Pollution Facts about the Ocean

Each year, we waste 12 million metric tonnes of plastic into the oceans, that's 26 billion pounds a year, or 100,000 blue whales.

Plastic will outweigh fish by 2050.

Plastics are the most common ocean element. Plastic doesn't break down readily and is often mistaken for food by marine animals.

18 billion pounds of plastic rubbish end up in our oceans each year, according to Georgia research.

It's enough waste to cover every foot of the coastline with five trash bags of plastic, multiplying every year.

Single-use plastics are the 5 most common items in global coastal cleanups.

  • Plastic cigarette butts, 
  • food wrappers,
  • beverage bottles,
  • bottle caps,
  • straws, and
  • stirrers.

Oceans contain 5.25 trillion plastic fragments. 269,000 tonnes float on the surface, while 4 billion microfibers per square kilometre litter the deep water.

  • 80% of ocean garbage comes from land, including individuals, industry, and poor waste management/infrastructure.
  • 20% comes from ocean-based businesses like fishing, shipping, and cruise ships.

Plastics produce 80% of ocean trash's detrimental wildlife consequences.

The North Pacific Gyre off California's coast is the world's largest oceanic Garbage hotspot.

The greatest one is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

1. Plastic will overtake Fish

Each year, we waste 12 million metric tonnes of plastic in the oceans.

It is 26 billion pounds a year, or 100,000 blue whales. Plastic will outweigh fish by 2050.

Plastics are the most common ocean substance. Plastic doesn't break down readily and is often mistaken for food by marine animals.

18 billion pounds of plastic garbage end up in our oceans each year, according to Georgia research.

It's enough waste to cover every foot of the coastline with five plastic trash bags, multiplying yearly.

Oceans contain 5.25 trillion plastic debris. 269,000 tonnes float on the surface, while 4 billion microfibers per square kilometre litter the deep water.

80% of ocean rubbish comes from land, including individuals, industry, and poor waste management/infrastructure.

20% comes from ocean-based businesses like fishing, shipping, and cruise ships.

Plastics produce 80% of ocean trash's detrimental wildlife consequences.

The North Pacific Gyre off California's coast is the world's largest oceanic waste hotspot.

Here, floating garbage outnumbers aquatic life six to one.

Plastic bags, metal cans, fishing equipment, glass bottles, shoes, and tyres are the most common pollutants in deep waters (over 2,000 ft).

15 to 51 trillion microplastic particles weigh 205-520 million pounds, according to research.

Plastic microbeads (used as exfoliates in some personal care products) and synthetic fibres are too small for many wastewater treatment plants to filter out.

2. Oil spills aren't the Major Problem

Oil-spills-in-ocean

Only twelve percent of the oil found in our waters comes from the oil spills that make the headlines.

The amount of oil that is taken out to sea by runoff from our roads, rivers, and drainpipes is around two to three times as much.

The amount of oil in the water that is caused by oil spills is only 12%.

Runoff sources from cities and companies contribute 36% of the oil to the overall supply.

3. 5 areas filled with Garbage

Ocean-garbage

There is so much waste in the ocean that big piles of waste have formed. There are five of them throughout the world.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest in the world.

It is made up of about 1.8 trillion pieces of trash and is twice as big as Texas.

In the Pacific Ocean, there is a garbage island that is twice the size of Texas.

The North Pacific Gyre, which is off the coast of California, is the largest ocean garbage site in the world.

Here, there are six times as many floating pieces of plastic in the water as there are marine animals in the area.

4. Plastic poses a double threats

The sun and waves can break up the plastic in the ocean into tiny pieces called microplastics, which can then make their way into the food chain.

When it finally breaks down, which can take hundreds of years for a plastic bottle5, it releases chemicals that pollute the sea even more.

5. Pollution is the factor to do (literally)

Washing-cloth-in-the-ocean

More than 700,000 synthetic microfibers7 can get into our waterways with each load of laundry.

These plasticized fibres do not break down like natural materials as cotton or wool do.

One estimate says that there are 4 billion plastic microfibers per square kilometre in the ocean. 

6. Indonesia, India and China have the most garbage.

Indonesia and India produce more plastic than any other country.

Together, they add more plastic to the world's beaches than the next seven countries, including the United States, which is third on the list.

7. Tonnes of Trash on the Bottom.

Even though pollution in the ocean is terrible, what we can't see may be worse.

Scientists think that about 14 million metric tonnes of trash lie on the seafloor, so it's nearly impossible that we'll ever be able to remove it all.

8. Even Nutrients can be Harmful

When agricultural nutrients like nitrogen are dumped into the sea in large amounts, algae can grow very quickly.

When algae break down, they use up the oxygen in the water around them.

This creates a huge "dead zone" without Oxygen where fish and other marine life can die in large numbers. 

9. There are becoming more Dead Zones.

In 2004, scientists found 146 hypoxic zones11 in the world's oceans.

These are areas with so little oxygen that animals can't breathe and die. In 2008, there were more than 400 of them.

12 In 2017, oceanographers found a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that was almost the size of New Jersey13.

It was the largest dead zone ever measured at the time.

10. There are fewer Mussels in the Oceans.

One effect of greenhouse gas emissions is that the oceans are getting more acidic.

This makes it harder for bivalves like mussels, clams, and oysters to make shells, which lowers their chances of survival, throws off the food chain, and affects the multibillion-dollar shellfish industry.

11. We're causing a lot of Noise.

Some types of invertebrates, like jellyfish and anemones, can get cell damage from the noise pollution caused by shipping and military activity.

15 Tuna, sharks, sea turtles, and other animals depend on these animals for food.

Ocean noise pollution is also a problem. Ships, tankers, and shipping containers make noises that sound like air guns and high-powered sonar.

This noise pollution hurts fish and changes their homes, among other things.

China and Indonesia are the countries that put the most trash in the ocean.

Together, they are responsible for one-third of all pollution in the ocean.

Plastic ends up in the ocean's deepest layers.

Researchers have found that crustaceans in the Marianas Trench, which is the deepest part of the ocean, have swallowed plastic.

About one truckload of plastic gets dumped into the ocean every minute.

12. Ocean creatures Paying a High Price

Thousands of animals, from tiny finches to blue whales, die in horrible ways because they eat plastic or get caught in it.

Fish in the North Pacific eat 12,000 to 24,000 tonnes of plastic every year.

It can hurt or kill their digestive systems and move the plastic up the food chain to bigger fish, marine mammals, and people who eat seafood. 

A recent study found that one in four fish sold at markets in California had plastic in their stomachs.

Most of the plastic was in the form of tiny plastic fibres.

Plastic trash that floats in the ocean can look like food to sea turtles.

They can choke, hurt themselves inside, and die, or they can starve to death because they think they are full after eating plastic.

Sad to say, research shows that half of all sea turtles have eaten plastic.

According to new studies, there is so much plastic pollution on many beaches that it is stopping animals from having babies.

Every year, tens of millions of seabirds eat plastic. Plastic in the stomach reduces the amount of food it can hold, which makes the animal hungry.

60 percent of all seabird species are thought to have eaten pieces of plastic, and by 2050, that number is expected to rise to 99 percent.

Plastic is found commonly in the stomachs of marine birds that have died.

This shows how quickly the amount of trash in our oceans has grown over the past 40 years. Marine mammals eat plastic and get stuck in it.

Large amounts of plastic trash have been found in the habitat of the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, including in places where pups grow up.

The endangered Steller sea lion has also been harmed and killed by getting caught in plastic trash.

Packing bands are the most common thing that gets caught. Plastic has been found in the stomachs of whales that have already died.

Solutions for Ocean pollution

Indonesia and India produce more plastic than any other country.

Together, they add more plastic to the world's beaches than the next seven countries, including the United States, which is third on the list.

Many International Organizations have been the driving force behind the creation of millions of square miles of marine protected areas.

These are areas of the sea that are recognised internationally and where human activities, like fishing and shipping, are managed in a way that is good for the environment.

They also came up with the Seascapes approach, which involves working with local decision-makers to manage large, multi-use ocean areas in a sustainable way.

Since 2004, many organizations are working with partners in eight countries to protect marine life in four key areas:

  1. the Abrolhos Seascape in Brazil, 
  2. the Bird's Head Seascape in Indonesia,
  3. the Eastern Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
  4. The Tropical Pacific Seascape is in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador.