World Oceans Day 2018

Preventing plastic pollution this World Oceans Day

Plastic pollution has become one of the biggest threats to our marine environment, with over 268,940 tonnes of plastic estimated to be floating around in the Earth’s oceans. The majority of this plastic, around 80%, comes from land. An obvious threat to animals through injestion or entanglement, plastic also never truely breaks down. Only into tiny pieces called microplastics, which are poisonous to the creatures that injest them as they are often mistaken for plankton. Can you believe that there is currently more plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean than plankton?

There are so many small and easy behavioural changes that we can make in our daily lives to improve this situation and minimize our use of plastic. Whether its bringing your own Keep Cup to get your morning takeaway coffee, bringing your own carry bags to the grocery store, or carrying a reusable water bottle to avoid purchasing the single-use, plastic ones. World Oceans Day has provided a great collection of resources for education and awareness of plastic pollution that you can download for free here.

This year on World Oceans Day, we asked a few of our scientists what the oceans mean to them. Although our reasons can differ, it’s safe to say we would all love to see our oceans rid of plastic.