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If you need another great reason to head to the beach in September, the annual International Coastal Cleanup, the world’s largest volunteer effort to clean our waterways, kicks off this weekend.
From rivers to shorelines, from the surface to the depths of the oceans, at the North and South Poles, and throughout every body of water in between, discarded and abandoned trash and debris are diminishing the health of Earth’s waters and wildlife. Every species of marine turtle and more than half of all mammals and sea birds are affected by accumulating trash through entanglement or ingestion. The long list of impacted wildlife includes green sea and hawksbill turtles, North Atlantic right whales, California sea lions, and Atlantic puffins.
Because of its sheer volume and durability, ocean trash—metal, glass, rubber, paper, cloth, and plastic—is one of the biggest threats to marine biodiversity. According to the Marine Biology & Ecology Research Center at Plymouth University, plastic is the biggest water polluter by far. Global plastic production increased from 1.5 million metric tons in 1950 to 368 million in 2019. There are currently an estimated five trillion pieces of plastic littering our oceans.
The Plymouth University study determined that 92% of marine species and as many as one-fifth of animals at risk of extinction had harmful encounters with plastic—netting and rope that cause entanglements and fragments or microplastics that can block digestive systems and lead to reproductive problems and starvation. Microplastics, small bits and pieces, and beads from health and personal care products, also leach toxic chemicals into the water that can wind up in the food chain and potentially on our dinner plates.
While it’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of big, here, there, and everywhere environmental challenges like the massive amounts of plastic soup polluting our oceans, participating in the coastal cleanup has an immediate impact. Plus, the Ocean Conservancy has everything you need to be the sea change and connect and collect, including an interactive map to find a local community coordinator and info on how to organize your own cleanup crew and locate a spot in need of tidying.
Rolling up our sleeves and taking the trash out is an easy-to-achieve way to convert hope for a healthy planet into action. So please join us for the sake of oceans, coastal communities, and wildlife—like these baby turtles, one of the marine animals most at risk of consuming plastic.
If you’d like to see more magnificent creatures that will benefit from trash-free seas, check out the work of Conservation Photographer of the Year 2021 Kerim Sabuncuoğlu.
And if you’re keen to help shrink the plastics-sphere and keep the indestructible stuff out of our waterways, the World Wildlife Fund has ten tips to reduce your plastic footprint.
