Plastic pollution poses a serious threat to whales, seals, turtles, salmon and all of Puget Sound’s wildlife. Many whale and dolphin species are already threatened by whaling, entanglement in fishing nets and lines, climate change impacts, and capture for captivity, so the additional threat of plastic pollution is distressing. Globally, 100,000 marine mammals die every year as a result of plastic pollution. This includes whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and sea lions. A scientific note we published on April 09, 2019 reports the records of whales within the world’s largest accumulation of floating ocean plastic: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Less Food Availability. PCBs particularly affect the reproduction and immune system of the whales. It's just one of the hundreds of examples of animals consuming plastic in U.S. waters in recent years. Plastic pollution is everywhere. A 13-metre long fishing net and a 70cm piece of plastic from a car were among the debris recently found in stranded sperm whales. Pollution in the ocean affects everything in it. https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/whales-and-the-plastics-problem There are two principle ways that encountering marine debris can be fatal for these creatures: ingestion (eating) or entanglement in plastic-based fishing gear. They may even get attacked by more ocean parasites too. A whale in Virginia swallowed a DVD case, which lacerated her stomach. Photograph: Jeroen Hoekendijk Wed 30 Mar 2016 08.52 EDT However, the fact that large amounts of plastic are being consumed by this many animals is deeply troubling. 8. But it’s filling the oceans, and harming all kinds of marine life, including whales, dolphins and porpoises. How does plastic affect marine life? Plastic is so widely used and in (or around) so many products, that we’ve almost become blind to it. In most cases, the amount of plastic animals ingest isn’t enough to kill them, says Matthew Savoca, a Stanford-based whale expert who also studies plastic pollution… Too much of the trash comes from single-use plastic bags, which can choke, suffocate or kill thousands of whales, birds and other marine wildlife each year. Sixty-nine of the 90 cetacean species have been reported to have been affected by marine debris pollution - of these, 48 species have ingested marine debris. Over the past few weeks, two whales beached with large amounts of plastic in their stomachs making news headlines, one in the Phillippines and the other in Italy. The ingestion of trash has been found in 56% of cetacean species, with rates as … Plastic pollution affects at least 700 marine species and some estimates suggest that at least 100 million marine mammals are killed each year by it. The garbage in our oceans is having a deadly impact on many sea creatures, particularly whales and bottlenose dolphins, according to a recent study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin Journal. ... Whales and Dolphins. The whales will be affected with more diseases because of a poor ocean that is full of pollution. One dead pilot whale was found to contain 80 plastic bags in its stomach. For example, the crassicaudosis parasite may negatively affect a whale’s health and its ability to recover.