Our group has chosen to focus mainly on the negative effects that marine plastic debris has on wildlife and marine ecosystems. Unfortunately, people don’t tend to worry about problems unless it affects them individually or someone they’re close with. As a result, the issues that marine plastic debris causes for aquatic organisms can go unnoticed and unchanged. We hope that our group can raise awareness about the dangers of plastic debris and maybe even inspire people to actively combat the issue.

Our research indicates that three of the main issues that arise from abundant amounts of marine plastic debris are ingestion, entanglement and smothering of the sea floor. Ingestion can lead to undernourishment due to false feelings of satiety and absorption of toxins contained in plastics (among other things). Both of these effects could be fatal. Entanglement can have similar effects. Fish or other forms of wildlife can get caught in plastics of some kind or “ghost nets” and not be able to escape. Additionally, smothering that occurs on the seafloor can inhibit the exchange of gas between pore water and seawater and even ruin once pristine ecosystems.

To get an understanding of how widespread these effects can be we’ve also accumulated research that describes the abundance and travel tendencies of plastics in the world’s waters. One reason that society loves using plastics is that they’re durable. However, this poses a problem once they are thrown in the oceans because it means they will remain there for a very long time. Also, even when they do break down they turn into plastic fragments as opposed to just disappearing. This means that even smaller organisms can be affected. One study, through collecting debris samples with nets and scanning them using infrared spectroscopy, determined that levels of plastic fragments have been increasing over time. To make matters even worse, plastics have an amazing ability to float to even the most remote places on the planet. Basically, there is no escaping them.

Not wanting to have such a pessimistic topic, we also managed to find possible solutions to prevent the marine plastic debris issue. Our sources have suggested pushing for more biodegradable plastics, passing legislation limiting use of plastics, encouraging people to recycle more and constructing barriers at points where plastics are likely to enter the oceans. These recommendations can’t completely solve the marine plastic issue that the world faces today, but hopefully it can prevent all of the Earth’s waters from turning into the Gowanus Canal!