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So, is Marine Debris bad? |
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Marine Debris is bad for marine animals, people, and the ocean environment. |
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What are marine animals? |
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Marine animals are animals that live in the ocean like fish, dolphins, seals, and sea tutles. They are also animals that live near the ocean like sea gulls and albatrosses that get their food from the ocean. |
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What do Marine Debris do to marine animals? |
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When plastic bags float in the water, they look like jellyfish to animals like sea turtles. Sea turtles eat these plastic bags by mistake, thinking it is their favorite jellyfish to eat.
The plastic bags block their intestines (in their tummies), which trick their bodies into thinking they are full. This makes sea turtles stop eating the food they need, so they die from poor nutrition. |
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Marine animals like seals, turtles, and seabirds get tangled or chocked by fishing nets, ropes, and fishing lines. They can't move, so they die from starvation or lack of oxygen. This can happen when the debris are in the water or on the shore by the ocean. |
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Mother albatorosses mistakenly feed plastics to their chicks and eat plastics themselves, thinking it is food. When the only thing that fills their stomachs are plastics, both adult albatross and chicks do not get enough nutrition to grow and fly. |
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When fish, whales, and other marine animals gulp seawater, they sometimes end up taking in small plastic pieces as well. |
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| Photo courtesy: NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) |
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What does Marine Debris do to human? |
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People can get sick from eating fish that eat plastics and other marine debris. When we eat fish that eat plastics, those debris can end up in our stomachs as well. As more fish eat more plastic debris, we will need to be careful about eating seafood. |
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It is not safe for people to play on the beach or swim in the ocean with Marine Debris. Some debris are very sharp, such as broken glass pieces or injection needles that anyone on the ocean can step or fall on.
Other debris might have chemicals or other unknown liquids in or on them that can be harmful to people. |
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| drip bag & injection needle |
medicine bottle |
plastics & glass pieces |
propane gas tank |
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We cannot safely enjoy and watch the beautiful ocean because of Marine Debris. |
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What does Marine Debris do to the ocean environment? |
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The amount of Marine Debris is increasing very fast every year and is becoming a part of the marine environment. |
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Many marine creatures are using marine debris as homes and are living in them. This makes it hard to clean up marine debris because of the small creatures that will also be taken from their ocean environment. |
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