Dead whale found to have 30 PLASTIC BAGS in its stomach:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4185038/A-whale-30-PLASTIC-BAGS-stomach.html
Sperm Whales Found Dead In Germany, Stomachs FULL Of Plastic and Car Parts
Thirteen sperm whales stranded on the German coast had ingested huge amounts of plastic.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/30/plastic-debris-killing-sperm-whales
Plastic kills sperm whale in Davao
http://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/20/16/plastic-kills-sperm-whale-in-davao
Beached whale in Spain dies from ingesting plastic waste
https://phys.org/news/2013-03-beached-whale-spain-dies-ingesting.html
Cuvier's beaked whale had 4kg of plastic bags in stomach
Whale Found In The Netherlands with plastic found in its stomach
It's not exactly new information that our oceans are full of garbage.
The National Academy of Sciences in 1975 estimated that around 14 billion pounds of garbage are added each year. However, times have changed dramatically since then and that number is most likely a lot higher now.
Earlier this year, a study was published in Marine Pollution Bulletin about the impact of plastic in whales' diets. Plastic cannot be digested and will sit in the stomach or intestines without being able to go anywhere. Eventually, the digestive tract becomes blocked. With the whale unable to clear this blockage, it is unable to eat real food and thus, the researchers found that starvation and gastric rupture ultimately kill the whales.
And It's Not Just Whales!
Turtles
A 2012 study showed that turtles are affected heavily by ocean garbage too. They indiscriminately eat buoyant plastics and other forms of ocean litter, including balloons and translucent materials that resemble jellyfish. Much of this gets lodged in the turtle’s throat, and stomach causing it to die from suffocation or starvation in a similar fashion to the whales.
Birds
Recently, the impact of plastic on albatross has been receiving a great deal of attention. There's an island, known as the Midway Atoll home to nearly three million birds, most of which are albatross. The birds on this island take to the sea to find food but over 12% of the time, however, they find plastic instead, due to its proximity to the Great Pacific garbage patch. Which is worthy of it's article, which I'll write in the future. The story is similar around the world. All birds are suffering from our massive pollution issue.
Fish
Scientists at Ghent University in Belgium recently calculated that shellfish lovers are eating up to 11,000 plastic fragments in their seafood each year. And since big fish eat the small fish it works it's way up the food chain. We absorb fewer than 1%, but they will still accumulate in the body over time.
Conclusion:
It's almost impossible to estimate exactly how many animals are affected by plastic in our oceans per year, but some groups say the number as high as 100,000. Some organizations are experimenting with large-scale devices to help clean the marine pollution but there isn't currently anything in place. Until this desperately-needed solution comes, it's on all of us to reduce the amount of litter we generate so it doesn't end up in the mouths or around the necks of ocean animals.
Sources:
Image 1: https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Fdmk7hkyTIo/maxresdefault(dot)jpg
Image 2: AFP/Getty Images
Image 3: https://hkmarinelife.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/img_9781(dot)jpg
Image 4: http://cdn2.theinertia.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/alb(dot)jpg
Image 5: https://hkmarinelife.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/img_9781(dot)jpg
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X13000489
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0040884
http://www.iflscience.com/environment/ocean-animals-%E2%80%98death-plastic%E2%80%99-could-be-occurring-more-frequently/
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/feb/14/sea-to-plate-plastic-got-into-fish
If you think more people need to be aware of this issue whack that upvote button and help this post reach more people.
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Endless tears for what we are doing to these poor creatures. There are biodegradable products we could be using, yet, they are not often sold. Why? Do the corporations actually want to destroy as much life on this planet as they can? Is it to create more problems so they can swoop in with the $OLUTION$?
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Maybe the cost goes up when there are less animals. They love a bit of scarcity for the profit machines.
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OUCH! I hope that is not the root of the issue, but, once again....
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Yes, it is very terrible. Recently in the USA they started banning products like facewash/shampoo/soap that have those tiny plastic beads in them(the microbeads).
We are slowly fixing such an obvious problem. Washing ourselves with microplastic, it goes down the drain, the drain goes into a river or a lake. So many simple fixes!!! You know what they did to fix this? They just use micro sand! Which supposedly is a lot better as sand is naturally occuring and sinks to the bottom :)
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That's nice that a small step is being taken, yet, anything plastic can do, hemp can do better. The packaging on those said shampoos and washes is still made from plastic. It's like putting a bandaid on a brain haemorrhage to fix it.
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Exactly!
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it's not like the corporations want to destroy life. It's just that they don't care. We, as the consumer sshould demand for more ecofriendly products, even if that means paying more, otherwise the problem will keep growing bigger and bigger :(
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Yep, you got it.
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Well the corporations don't give a FUCK and the consumers are ignorant. The corporations are far more diabolical and the consumers are just complacent lazy perpetuates.
ITs true that if the consumers stopped buying and DEMANDED sustainable products the corporations WOULD provide them. Though the corporations are not making steps to do so and are bluntly pulling the wool over peoples eyes and perpetuating the lies.
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Upvote and resteem.
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Dude that is truly horrific.
It's horrifying to see what is inside these poor creatures.
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I just hope we wake up before it's too late.
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It is sad. We human should care about more our ocean and enviroment. Thank you for piling up all these shocking information together. I will definitely sharing it.
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Thank you. Much appreciated. Followed.
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This is all of our fault. we buy plastic still to this day and we don't see what harm it does until a post like this. Im afraid it's too late to stop this. Our mother earth is being raped and we need to help her. Stop consuming is easier said than done.
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Exactly! And we have alternatices actually for most of it.
So check this out, after doing some research online I was able to figure out how to get rid of ever having to buy water bottles ever again.
What I did was buy some glass bottles 18oz, the are able to go in dishwasher, and have a stainless steel cap. They should last for years, only like 19 bucks for 6 of them on amazon. Ibought 12 total of those, and bought a filtration system for our water (to get the floirudie + other crap out of what I am consuming).
Works great!
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Really it's awesome post.
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Can't hold my tear.. it's getting worst day by day, what've we done
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Wow
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This post makes my tears fall :(
Very emotional post .. Continue, please..
I follow you and resteemed and upvoted this post
Kindly, Have a look into my blog, you may like any of my posts
https://steemit.com/home/@asmaasema/5upb6x-preventing-birth-defects-steps-to-take-before-and-during-pregnancy
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This is too bad to see how they die, we have to try to find another way of using the plastic bags. The best choice is cardboard bags that are not the one tough for anyone.
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Dreadful impact on animals everywhere really. In the end we human being will have to pay the price of taking things for granted for too long! It's hard to change one's habit. The campaign to reduce plastic in super market in my country has been very half-hearted, it's all for show of having social responsibility. It is not the same as people feeling and caring for other beings. We have been conditioned in a very un-wise way. Keep up the good work. A drop of water will soon fill up the bowl as one drop leads to another one!
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This post has received a 1.65 % upvote from @bellyrub thanks to: @thedonfreeman.
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it's one thing to hear about the problem and another to see actually photos of the results. :(
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This post received a 3.7% upvote from @randowhale thanks to @thedonfreeman! For more information, click here!
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I click :-D
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This post has received a 3.37 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @thedonfreeman.
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This is a SUPER important topic. I have spoke about it many times at conferences and such.
Thanks for sharing. I will follow you now and support important information.
SteemON!
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