Cover and story photos from the Center for Environmental Education 



The Plastic Peril 



By Nancy Davis 



The body of a laughing gull lay in the sand. 

 Fishing line was twisted around its spindly 

 legs and feet. 



Ornithologist James Parnell picked up the 

 remaining line that hung from the bird's feet 

 and began to reel it in. No sense in leaving 

 the death trap for more birds. 



About 25 yards of line later, Parnell saw 

 that he was too late. 



The bodies of five more birds were strung 

 together with a twisted mat of nylon line 

 meant to capture fish, not his feathered 

 friends. 



The action was innocent enough. A 

 sportsman replacing the line on his fishing 

 rod probably tossed the monofilament 

 overboard. 



First one gull got caught in the line. Then 

 he dragged it back to the colony where the 

 other birds met a similar fate. They may have 

 thrashed about for awhile, trying to free 

 themselves. But eventually they starved to 

 death. 



There are other casualties. 



The killer is plastic litter. 



Each year, thousands of marine mammals, 

 birds and fish are victims of our plastic 

 society. Curious fur seals play in abandoned 



fishing nets, get caught and drown. Birds 

 dive through six-pack rings and strangle 

 themselves. Fish swallow indigestible floating 

 plastic pellets. 



The result is almost always the same. The 

 synthetic wonder material built to last a life- 

 time sucks the breath from marine wildlife. 



During World War II, shortages of natural 

 resources created a demand for plastics. By 

 the 1970s, over 20 billion pounds of plastics 

 were produced. Last year, plastic production 

 increased to over 47.9 billion pounds. 



But the problem is not how much we pro- 

 duce. It's how much we throw away — into 

 our lakes, rivers and oceans. 



Plastic is nonbiodegradable, and some plas- 

 tics are engineered to last as long as 450 

 years. That means one six-pack ring has the 

 potential to kill over and over again. 



The litterbugs vary. 



According to the National Academy of 

 Sciences, merchant ships dump about 6.6 mil- 

 lion tons of trash overboard every year. Much 

 of it is plastic. 



Careless beachgoers also contribute. In Los 

 Angeles County, Calif., picnickers leave 

 behind about 75 tons of trash on beaches 

 each week. Among the discarded are six-pack 



