Plastic touching coral raises disease risk from 4% to 89%
A survey of 124,000 corals across the Asia-Pacific found plastic debris multiplies the chance of coral disease more than twenty-fold.
Wildlife
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More than 1,000 tonnes of microplastic rain down on US national parks each year
Microplastic falls with rain and dust even in the most remote protected areas of the western United States.
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km of fishing longline lost at sea every year
Longlines are long fishing lines that carry thousands of hooks. Enough is lost to circle the Earth 18 times, plus 14 billion hooks and…
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plastic particles floating on the ocean surface
About 171 trillion particles, weighing roughly 2.3 million tonnes, were afloat in 2019; the number has risen sharply since 2005.
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marine species known to be harmed by plastic debris
914 species have been recorded ingesting or entangled in marine debris, up from 267 in 1997.
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of seabirds have eaten plastic
Modelling estimates 90% of individual seabirds have ingested plastic; 99% of species will be affected by 2050.