The Threat to Marine Life, The Ocean & Humanity
The ocean is our planet’s life support system. It holds 97% of Earth’s water, helps regulate global temperatures, absorbs carbon dioxide, and provides a vital protein source for over a billion people. Yet despite its importance, we’re polluting it at an alarming rate. Every year, an estimated 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enter the ocean. This crisis affects marine life, disrupts delicate ecosystems, and even threatens human health. What we do over the next decade will have a lasting impact—possibly shaping the health of our oceans for the next 10,000 years.
Plastic pollution is killing marine animals in devastating numbers. It’s estimated that over 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to plastic ingestion or entanglement. Baby sea turtles, some of the most vulnerable ocean dwellers, aren’t spared either—researchers have found that every single one studied had plastic in its stomach. In total, over 700 marine species are at risk of extinction because of plastic, and 1 in 3 fish caught for human consumption has been found to contain microplastics. Coral reefs, the rainforests of the sea, are also under threat. Corals that come into contact with plastic are 20 times more likely to suffer from disease.
The scale of the plastic problem is staggering. There are currently about 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic floating in our oceans, with an estimated 269,000 tonnes on the surface alone. Every single day, roughly 8 million pieces of plastic enter the ocean. The total volume of plastic waste already in the ocean lies somewhere between 75 and 199 million tonnes, and it’s growing fast. If we don’t act, by 2025 the ocean could hold 250 million metric tonnes of plastic. Today, 88% of the ocean’s surface is polluted by plastic debris.
One of the most infamous examples of ocean pollution is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—a swirling mass of plastic waste between California and Hawaii. This patch covers an area of 1.6 million square kilometers, making it larger than the state of Texas. It contains roughly 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic and weighs over 80,000 tonnes. Shockingly, nearly half of this mass is made up of discarded fishing nets. The patch also blocks sunlight, disrupting algae and plankton growth—key components of the marine food chain.
Where does all this plastic come from? In 2023 alone, we produced over 381 million tonnes of plastic waste. About half of that was single-use, and just 9% was actually recycled. Roughly 20% of ocean plastic comes from marine-based sources like fishing gear, while the remaining 80% originates on land—things like packaging, litter, and poor waste management. Ten river systems are responsible for 90% of the plastic entering our oceans, and eight of them are in Asia, where rapid urban growth and limited waste infrastructure worsen the problem.
Plastic bags, bottles, and straws are some of the most visible culprits. Over 1 million plastic bags are discarded every minute. Annually, we use about 500 billion plastic bottles—each one taking up to 450 years to break down. A typical plastic bag is used for just 15 minutes but can persist in the environment for a thousand years. Meanwhile, there are an estimated 8.3 billion plastic straws littering the world’s coastlines.
The consequences of ocean plastic pollution reach far beyond marine life. Microplastics are now being found in our food, drinking water, and even in the air we breathe. Personal care products with microbeads can release up to 100,000 plastic particles in a single use. The toxic chemicals associated with plastic have been linked to hormonal disruptions, weakened immunity, and reproductive issues in humans.
Source: Condoferries
