(Describer) Under a round logo of a wave, title: Ocean Today.
In an animation, garbage flies out of a can into water.
Title: Trash Talk.
(woman)
How does marine debris impact
the ocean, animals, and me?
Would you want
to swim in trash?
Of course not.
The animals in the ocean
don't either.
The difference is,
they don't have a choice.
(Describer) Dianna Parker:
Marine species often
get tangled in debris,
from fishing nets
to six-pack rings.
If they get caught,
they could get injured or die.
Even if
they don't get entangled,
animals often mistake plastic
debris for food and eat it.
This fills their stomach
with junk they can't digest.
Debris can also damage
important habitats,
like coral reefs,
by breaking
or smothering them.
Corals serve as the base
of the marine ecosystem,
and impacts here can be felt
all the way to you and me.
Plus, plastics
have harmful chemicals in them.
Fish eat plastic,
we eat fish.
The question is,
Can those chemicals harm us?
Marine debris
also hurts the economy.
It costs a lot
to clean up,
and people avoid
dirty beaches.
Boats can run into
large pieces of debris too,
or get
their propellers tangled.
We need the ocean
and everything in it.
The ocean needs us
to keep it free of debris.
(Describer) Logos are shown for the Smithsonian and NOAA.
Accessibility provided by the US Department of Education.
Accessibility provided by the
U.S. Department of Education.
