A number of scientists believe that is the most far-reaching, man-made threat many marine species today. Plastic annually or cripples tens of thousands of , seabirds, sea lions, and sea otters, hundreds of whales, dolphins, porpoises, and turtles. Plastic behaves differently from oil or toxic chemical spills. Both those are concentrated in one place. But behave like mines; they float around ocean waiting for a victim.

The first learned of plastic's devastating effect an entire population of marine animals the late 1970s. The first victims the northern seals of the Pribilof located in the Bering Sea near . Beginning in 1976, scientists noticed that seal population was decreasing rapidly each . After some careful observations, the scientists that plastic entanglement was killing up 40,000 seals a year.

This is the plastic kills. Because seals are curious, they play with fragments of netting or packing straps floating on water. They often catch their necks the webbing, reported Dr. Fowler, a who visits the islands every summer. debris constricts the seals' movements, preventing animals from feeding normally. The animals then unable to pull themselves away the debris. They eventually drown, starve death, or die of infection or from deep wounds caused by their to free themselves from the plastic.

problem is not with the plastics but in the way people dispose them. Until only recently, no laws specifically prohibited ocean disposal and dumping plastics. As a result, ships have the ocean their dumping grounds, getting of waste in a careless manner. is today the favored American material -- , lightweight, safer than glass, and less than leather. Because it is so and resistant to destruction, it floats the surface of the water, and animals often mistake it for food. addition, plastic is often transparent and animals that cannot see it. It the most common type of sea today. Thus, plastic, invented to improve life, is an unexpected factor in pollution and death to marine life.