Plastic WITHIN fish

The amount of trash found in the Atlantic Ocean has not increased within the past two decades, sounds like good news right? Well not necessarily. Even if we take the recycling rates into consideration, the amount of plastic humans’ are using within the past two decades has been increasing. Opposing the question, where is all the plastic going if not in the Ocean. Unfortunately, the plastic that is located in the Atlantic Ocean are in the forms of small plastic bits, originally from all different landfills coming together in this ocean. These small forms of plastic are major hazards to the fish and marine life located inside water environments, in this case the Atlantic Ocean. A triggerfish found in the Atlantic Ocean held 47 pieces of plastic inside its body. Therefore, although the Law and Colleagues analysis of data from the plastic in the Atlantic Ocean are not increasing, the SEA’s Law believes that it is and it makes for a depressing but honest story.

The science that shows in the media imply that humans are doing an excellent job of “cleaning up the Earth” either by producing less garbage or recycling the garbage already produced. This is true, but only to an extent. Yes, humans are improving their output of garbage, but to say that this has been so productive that it is allowing the Oceans’ (a place where litter infested their waters for centuries) trash level to stay constant and/or even have a chance to decrease is not something that I believe can not possibly happen so quickly. The media, as well as SEA’s Law and I know that this situation is a possibility but something that has not yet come true. Except, the way media plays a role in our lives they do not show these worries but instead show how far science has come.

One day our waters will in fact become pure again. This is an opinion that most researchers believe to come true since we show interest in making this planet a better place to live. The trash rate within the Atlantic Ocean is an under covered problem. We humans are taking our part in improving the marine life, but what we have already accomplished is not enough. Cleaning the 197 million miles of land and water we call, Earth takes more than picking up after ourselves. The marine life is a problem not looked upon as often as it should, so do your part and help clean up this Earth.

SOURCE: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/100820-science-environment-garbage-patch-missing-plastic-atlantic-ocean/ Ocean Garbage Patch Not Growing- Where’s “missing” plastic? By: Rachael Kaufman