Biodiversity > Nature's Superheroes > Ocean Pollution

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>>ALL: Welcome to CAN news.

>>CANYON: I’m Canyon

>>AMELIA: I’m Amelia

>>NOLAN: and I’m Nolan

Today, we are going to study plastic pollution!

>>NOLAN: Please welcome our marine biologist, Canyon.

>>CANYON: Hello, I am your CAN marine biologist and today I come to tell you why we should not pollute. Many turtle species eat sea jellies so they could think that a plastic bag is a sea jelly. And when they eat it they can choke and die.

Sea turtles sometimes also get plastic straws stuck in their nostrils.

>>NOLAN: What about dolphins? How do they get affected by plastic pollution?

>>AMELIA: Dolphins and other animals get affected by plastic pollution because they get tangled in plastic fishing nets and this is bad because this can prevent them from being able to swim and it can be so tight that can cut off their blood flow and both of these examples can lead to these animals’ death.

>>NOLAN Did you know that five trillion pieces of plastic trash are in all the world's oceans, and 90% of sea birds eat plastic trash and many of them die? This is bad because these birds keep down the population of the animals they eat.

>>CANYON: It is also not just the big plastic pollution that is a problem. Plastic erodes over time into microscopic pieces of plastic. These are known as microplastics, and there is a lot of microplastic in the ocean. Smaller animals eat the microplastic thinking it is food, and then a bigger animal eats that animal, and something bigger eats that animal. Sometimes that bigger animal is us! So even we are eating plastic that gets into the ocean!

>>AMELIA: Here are some ways we can stop plastic pollution:

1. Recycle

2. We can pick up trash from the ecosystem.

3. Reuse and reduce items.

>>ALL: Together, we CAN stop plastic pollution!

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