Take a piece of plastic away from the beach.
Grab 1 piece of plastic & simply put it in the trash at home (… or any other bin, maybe even send it to one of major producers of plastic… )
Taking even small plastic-pieces makes a difference.
…taken away, they won’t end up in the ocean and be mistaken for food by birds, dolphins…
Try to make it a habit.
It’s a very, very small step towards no plastic (or other foreign objects) in the sea.
The „take one“ plastic idea
We’re all used to plastic on a beach (… and other places). But we could change that. We could take it away. And ask lots of other people to do the same.
Plastic ends up in the stomachs of sea animals
Dolphins and turtles eat plastic…
Some turtles feed on jellyfisch, and a plastic bag floating in the water might look just and smell like a yummy jellyfish dinner to them. Dolphins might mistake a plastic bag for a tasty meal of octopus.
Over time the plastic is filling up their digestive systems, leaving no room for real food and even clogging up their bowels.
No plastic in the ocean is the only way to help dolphins and turtles.
Whales eat plastic…
Most whales live on a diet of tiny critters called krill. They catch the krill by filtering the ocean water with their sieve-like baleens: The krill is caught in the whale’s baleen and then swallowed. Unfortunately, plastic particles in the water get stuck in the baleen, too. And the whale swallows the plastic together with its real food. Blue whales might swallow a whopping 40 kilograms of plastic on a single day. Whales that don’t filter water for krill are even more endangered, some of them have washed up on beaches with their stomachs full of plastic bags and other man made stuff.
No plastic in the ocean is the only way to help whales.
Seabirds eat plastic…
In the ocean, there is a lot of small plankton, the smell of the sea is mostly coming from these tiny critters. This plankton also loves to grow on pieces of plastic. Unfortunately, Seabirds think that something smelling this good has to be food, maybe a piece of dead fish or tasty algae. So, they swallow pieces of plastic thinking it to be a meal. By the time they realize their mistake, it’s too late. The plastic piles up in their stomach. The plastic leaves no room for real food, causing the animal to starve with a full stomach. Sometimes the sharp edges of plastic pieces even make holes into the stomach wall. Very slowly, the pieces of plastic stuck in the stomach erode and release toxic components that poison the birds.
No plastic in the ocean is the only way to help seabirds.