Plenty of (plastic) fish in the ocean

It’s summer now, and the call of the beach pulls us in like the tide. Like soldier crabs, we emerge from seemingly nowhere and then are somehow everywhere, staking claim to the sand on towels that unfurl like flags. We hurl ourselves into the water, a cool respite from temperatures that steadily inch up thermometers year after year, and then plant ourselves back onto our plot of sand to lay out a picnic spread bought on the other side of the esplanade just moments before. Plastic containers of sushi and a few cans of soft drink, taken in with a view of the endless expanse of ocean. In the evening we pack up, disappearing almost as quickly as we arrived. Most of the trash is picked up and slotted into bins. Some is simply forgotten, left behind on the beach to get lost in the sand, picked up by gulls, or swallowed by the rising tide.

These soy sauce containers were all collected from a single beach in Byron Bay. They are small, and so easily forgotten. Those not picked up by the council may traverse thousands of kilometres across the ocean, likely ending up in one of five major ocean gyres, or perhaps being regurgitated by a seabird to feed their young, or even ending up in the belly of a whale that, years later, may be found dead on the shore of that same beach, starved and dehydrated from consuming tens of kilograms worth of plastic.

Hundreds of thousands of marine mammals die each year from plastic waste alone. Microplastics have found their way into not only the deep sea, but back into our soil, food, water, and even air.

An estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic enters our oceans every year. By 2050, plastic is expected to outweigh all the fishes in the sea. Much of this plastic is used for a single moment, then goes on to pollute several lifetimes, taking decades, even centuries, to break down.

There are so many reasons to care. If not for our oceans and wildlife, then for ourselves.