Minute plastic particles pose risk to marine animals like fish, which take in water through gills.
A study suggests that waste captured by gills is more difficult to be removed than the waste taken by mouth.
Since fishes are consumed by human, the spillover effect of plastic pollution of sea can be experienced in human also.
In North Pacific Ocean alone, plastic waste of around 12,000 to 24,000 tons ends up in fish.
Synthetic commercial fishing nets lying in the ocean cause injury and death of many sea turtles.
Sea turtles also swallow small plastic waste mistaking them for food, which obstructs the digestive system of turtle and results in death.
The confusion is caused by the smell emitted by ocean plastic. The ocean plastic releases dimethyl sulfide which is also released by phytoplankton and phytoplankton is a food source of many marine animals.
Since whales have enormous size of mouth, plastic is ingested by whales along with water column while swallowing fishes.
In the postmortem examination of some whales, large amount of plastic has been found.
Fishing lines, lures and nets made of plastic entangle sea lions and seals.
Sea lions and seals also get entrapped in plastic packing bands and bags, which may cause injury and even death.
More than 8 million tonnes of plastic are dumped annually into the ocean.
The source of this plastic is world՚s rivers which receive the trash from world՚s cities.
According to United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) , around 70,000 tonnes of plastic is dumped into the ocean by Ganga, Brahmaputra (India) and Meghna (Bangladesh) rivers. Ganga Brahmaputra and Meghna along with seven other rivers of Asia and Africa are responsible for 90 percent plastic waste dumped into the oceans.
The root cause is the humans. As human produces 300 million tonnes of plastic annually.
According to recent estimates, if the trend continues, the oceans will have more plastic than fish by 2050.