Plastics Plague Our Oceans, Killing Marine Mammals ("The Hill")

By Dave Phillips and Mark J. Palmer

A humpback whale was spotted off San Diego’s coast on Valentine’s Day 2020, entangled in a green plastic fishing net. It struggled to migrate up California’s coast, leaping repeatedly to desperately try to rid itself of the net. But rescuers were unable to safely get close enough to try to cut the net off.

Wildlife photographer Domenic Biagini, the first to sight the breaching whale, shared his pictures: thick green cords drawn tightly across skin; water agitated into a white froth. Biagini wrote, “I don’t have the words to describe the heartbreak.”

The whale disappeared.

The whale’s tortuous journey created a brief media buzz, and its final fate is unknown. But it most likely joined the tens of thousands of whales and other marine mammals killed by plastic pollution and plastic fishing gear every year, sinking dead to the bottom of the ocean.

The plague of plastic in our oceans is steadily worsening, taking an increasingly deadly toll on whales, dolphins, seals and other marine mammals, not to mention other marine life.

A new report we at the Earth Island Institute’s International Marine Mammal Project just released chronicles that carnage, surveys the science on this growing epidemic, identifies the culprits in the plastic and fishing industries, and calls for specific policy solutions in plastic hot spots around the world.

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Read the Rest of the Op-ED in The Hill.

Read Our Report: The Plastics Plague: Marine Mammals and Our Oceans in Peril.

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The International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute has released a compelling report on the terrible damage plastics cause for marine mammals across the globe. Now comes the hard part – implementing real changes to end the plastics in our oceans. Can you donate to help whales and dolphins, seals and sea lions? Thank you for your support.