Source: Ocean Health Index
Written By Dr. Richard Thompson, School of Marine Science and Engineering, Plymouth University
Weaned Monk Seal pup entangled in a line with plastic, found in Midway Atoll, Spring 2013. Courtesy of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
Fatal entanglement in and ingestion of marine debris by marine animals has increased by 40% in the last decade, according to a recent Convention on Biological Diversity report that I co-authored with Sarah Gall and Duncan Bury. Over half of the 280 papers we reviewed documented entanglement and ingestion, impacting 46,000 individuals and 663 species.