Jay Sawyer of Chicago Shares How Plastic Waste Affects Marine Wildlife

1. Jay Sawyer of Chicago Shares How Plastic Waste Affects Marine Wildlife

2. Jay Sawyer of Chicago Explains How Plastic Waste Affects Marine Wildlife • Jay Sawyer of Chicago believes that plastic waste affects marine wild life • He feels that how severely the world’s plastic waste crisis is affecting marine wildlife isn’t fully understood • Sawyer illustrates some of what we know about how plastic affects sea turtles and marine mammals in United States waters

3. Negative Impact of Plastic Pollution on Marine Wildlife • According to a study, in the North Atlantic, more than 80 percent of Cory’s shearwater fledglings contain plastics in their stomachs • In the North Pacific, 90 percent of Laysan albatross chicks have some sort of plastic debris in their gastrointestinal tracts • More than 92 percent of Northern fulmars have ingested plastic • The plastic ingestion will continue to increase in seabirds and that it will reach 99% of all species by 2050 • Corals that come into contact with plastics have a greater risk of contracting diseases • 35 percent of fish that eat plankton in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch contain fragments and microfragments of plastics in their guts • One study has also revealed that 98% of chicks sampled contained plastics and that the quantity of plastic being ingested was increasing over time

4. Sawyer Explains the Problem of Plastic Pollution • Jay Sawyer of Chicago points that plastic has been slowly accumulating in the marine environment since the 1960s • The huge masses of plastic is floating in the oceans and other waste plastics washing up on the once beautifully clean beaches around the world

5. Thank YouJay Sawyer, Chicago