Plastic Pollution: A Menace to Marine Biology

Marine birds and plastic pollution

The intrinsic properties and widespread presence of plastic particles in the marine environment have profound effects on birds inhabiting the world's oceans. Industrial and user-plastics composed of polystyrene, polypropylene, polyethylene, styrofoam, and polyvinyl chloride are the most prevalent forms of plastic marine pollution. Their dispersal and accumulation, in average densities of 1000 t...

Managing Marine Plastic Pollution: Policy Initiatives to Address Wayward Waste

Leatherback turtles: the menace of plastic.

The leatherback, Dermochelyscoriacea, is a large sea turtle that feeds primarily on jellyfish. Floating plastic garbage could be mistaken for such prey. Autopsy records of 408 leatherback turtles, spanning 123 years (1885-2007), were studied for the presence or absence of plastic in the GI tract. Plastic was reported in 34% of these cases. If only cases from our first report (1968) of plastic w...

Marine pollution. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean.

Plastic debris in the marine environment is widely documented, but the quantity of plastic entering the ocean from waste generated on land is unknown. By linking worldwide data on solid waste, population density, and economic status, we estimated the mass of land-based plastic waste entering the ocean. We calculate that 275 million metric tons (MT) of plastic waste was generated in 192 coastal ...

Susceptibility of Sardinella lemuru to emerging marine microplastic pollution

Marine microplastics are emerging pollutants that impact across levels of marine food chain at a global scale. Its presence was determined on Sardinella lemuru, a commercial pelagic fish that are harvested generally in the Northern Mindanao, consumed locally, and exported worldwide as bottled or canned sardine products.  The stomach contents of 600 sardines were examined visually under...