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Plastic Debris and Its Impacts on Marine Mammals
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This review examines how plastic debris in the world's oceans affects marine mammals through ingestion, entanglement, and chemical exposure, finding that the durability and widespread distribution of plastics make them a persistent and growing threat to cetaceans, pinnipeds, and other marine mammals.
Abstract In recent decades, global plastic consumption has rapidly increased. Large quantities of plastics enter the environment in various ways, often ending up in the oceans. Plastic debris is nowadays found in any aquatic ecosystems. Due to its long durability, plastics may drift around with ocean currents for decades. Nowadays, plastic debris can be found in any aquatic ecosystem. Eventually, plastics decay into smaller fragments and sink to the seafloor. Marine mammals are affected by plastics in three major ways: They confuse large pieces of plastics with food, they become entangled in fishing nets, and they ingest smaller plastic fragments together with prey items. Here we discuss causes and solutions to these problems. We use exercises to investigate plastic debris in the environment and discuss how we all can become part of the solution through our own actions.
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Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.