How Plastic Turns Toxic In Our Oceans

Plastic Breaks Down in Ocean, After All—And Fast. Researchers behind a new study found that plastic breaks down at cooler temperatures than expected, and within a year of hitting the water, cooking up plastic soup in the seas. National Geographic illustrates how it happens.

Learn more at:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/plastic-breaks-down-in-ocean-after-all-and-fast

About 44 percent of all seabirds eat plastic, apparently by mistake, sometimes with fatal effects. And 267 marine species are affected by plastic garbage

Moore worries about the plastic-derived chemicals' potential damage to wildlife. The chemicals can potentially cause cancer in humans, he said, and simpler life-forms "may be more susceptible then we are."

"The plastic soup we've made of the ocean is pretty universal—it's just a matter of degree," he said. "All these effects we're worried about are happening throughout the ocean as a unity."