I forgot about fishing nets, yes that's a deadly hazard too. Sometimes fishing lines get cut off by mistake, fishing nets get shredded after a storm, accidents happen. Sometimes also fishermen don't care and just throw away an old net in the sea.
However, there was a famous picture of a bird which has supposedly eaten a lot of plastic and died, and Patrick Moore has repeatedly stated that this was a fake picture. He also said that plastic doesn't kill birds at all.
The paper about birds, also doesn't state anywhere that plastic has killed any bird. Plastic may be poisoning some species, upsetting their breeding cycle, but the same could be true for humans. If we use plastic and it is poisoning us, but in addition to that it's poisoning some animals, then poisoning animals doesn't sound like a good reason to stop using it.
The young sperm whale which died is also pretty strange. It is not a filter feeder and we haven't heard since, new dead whales with tens of kilograms of plastic in their belly. Whales which were closely related to wolves before they became aquatic mammals, should have a sense of smell and figure out what stuff in the sea is edible. They are also pretty smart, even more so than birds.
I cannot open the paper about coral reefs, but i also haven't seen a coral reef in my life. I haven't seen whales either, but i have seen and swam around dolphins and seals.
>We don’t know the full extent. Most animals that die at see are never seen let alone autopsied.
There is a way to find out. Captive dolphins exist. Throw some plastics around and see if dolphins eat it. Take some captive seagulls for some weeks, feed them some fish, and throw around their food, plastic bottle caps etc. See if the seagulls will eat it. Do they eat as much plastic as they can and die afterwards?
> The paper about birds, also doesn't state anywhere that plastic has killed any bird.
It's literally in the introduction, with citations to the papers that have the documentation of the occurrences:
> Many seabird species are sensitive to plastic pollution; they frequently ingest plastic, which can have lethal and sublethal impacts caused by chemical contamination and physical damage or blockages.
And
> There is a way to find out. Captive dolphins exist. Throw some plastics around and see if dolphins eat it. Take some captive seagulls for some weeks, feed them some fish, and throw around their food, plastic bottle caps etc. See if the seagulls will eat it. Do they eat as much plastic as they can and die afterwards?
This is probably the most disgusting and awful suggestion I've seen for a long time. "I don't want to consider that my actions may be harmful, so I'd rather you subject some animals to cruel and needless deaths".
However, there was a famous picture of a bird which has supposedly eaten a lot of plastic and died, and Patrick Moore has repeatedly stated that this was a fake picture. He also said that plastic doesn't kill birds at all.
The paper about birds, also doesn't state anywhere that plastic has killed any bird. Plastic may be poisoning some species, upsetting their breeding cycle, but the same could be true for humans. If we use plastic and it is poisoning us, but in addition to that it's poisoning some animals, then poisoning animals doesn't sound like a good reason to stop using it.
The young sperm whale which died is also pretty strange. It is not a filter feeder and we haven't heard since, new dead whales with tens of kilograms of plastic in their belly. Whales which were closely related to wolves before they became aquatic mammals, should have a sense of smell and figure out what stuff in the sea is edible. They are also pretty smart, even more so than birds.
I cannot open the paper about coral reefs, but i also haven't seen a coral reef in my life. I haven't seen whales either, but i have seen and swam around dolphins and seals.
>We don’t know the full extent. Most animals that die at see are never seen let alone autopsied.
There is a way to find out. Captive dolphins exist. Throw some plastics around and see if dolphins eat it. Take some captive seagulls for some weeks, feed them some fish, and throw around their food, plastic bottle caps etc. See if the seagulls will eat it. Do they eat as much plastic as they can and die afterwards?