Ocean trash Ocean trash | Page 4

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o much marine life is affected by the pollution of our trash that the result of the pollution is causing sea life to become endangered and in some cases go extinct. These examples will make you stop using plastics like its a bad habit.

1All too often sea turtles mistake trash for prey or they get their bodys caught in the trash. The trash sometimes isnt thrown directly into the ocean but can blow from inland or come from storm drains. These pieces of trash are things like baloons, wrappers, soda/beer cans plastic rings (as you can see in figure 1), and plastic bags which sea turtles can mistake for their main source of food, sea jellys. Sea turtles are also a key stone species and according to the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), "Leatherback sea turtles provide natural ecological control over jellyfish populations." So as we decrease the population of the sea turtles we also see a increae in the over population of sea jellys.

2 It doesnt take a whole lot of trash to take the life of a marine animal. In August of 2014, a 45 foot long female sei whale was found dead in St. Julien's creek, which comes from a river that is connected to Chesapeak Bay. The cause of death came from nothing bigger then a broken piece of DVD case. (continue on next page)

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Who it Effects

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