Much of the plastic that we throw out ends up in the oceans, with an estimated 4.7 million tons of plastic is going into the oceans, each year. 80% comes from the land and the rest comes from ocean-going vehicles and oil drilling platforms.
Twice as much garbage is laying on the seabed today, compared to 10 years ago.
There are 5 great garbage patches in all the world’s oceans. Although there are a lot of big chunks of plastic floating out there (a young sperm whale which recently washed up dead on a California beach was found to have 400 lbs of large chunks of plastic his his stomach, the great plastic gyres are generally not “Texas-sized” islands of floating garbage, as sometimes described for dramatic effect.The patches are more like a soup, where biodegraded, little pieces of garbage that resemble plankton are mixed up with the real plankton, which are then consumed by many different kinds of sea animals from fish, to birds to turtles, very often, choking them to death.
This documentary includes interviews with Capt. Charles Moore, of the Algalita Marine Research Institute, Anna Cummins of the 5 gyres Institute, Dr Andrea Neal of the Jean-Michel Cousteau Foundation and a variety of scientists and doctors who have been researching how bad the situation really is.
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