Marine plastic pollution causes suffering and death for millions of marine animals annually. Understanding the mechanisms of harm helps direct effective prevention and cleanup efforts.
Marine plastic pollution causes individual animal suffering at a massive scale across diverse species. Entanglement in nets, fishing line, and packaging bands causes acute trauma — limb amputation, spinal injury, drowning — in sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds, and fish. Ghost gear is particularly insidious as it continues operating without human oversight, trapping animals indefinitely. Ingestion causes slower suffering: stomach blockage prevents food absorption, plastic chemical leaching causes toxicity, and the false sense of fullness from plastic ingestion allows animals to starve while their stomachs appear full. The welfare implications of microplastic ingestion at the population level are still being studied but include endocrine disruption and inflammatory responses. Prevention requires systemic reduction in plastic production and improved waste management, while cleanup addresses the existing pollution affecting animals today.