Ocean plastic: an invasive species

Plastic threatens marine biodiversity and human survival, and it is urgent to remove it!
About 8 million tons of plastic enter the ocean every year! This is equivalent to dumping about 1,000 tons of plastic into the sea every hour, which is almost one truckload of plastic every minute. Data shows that by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the sea by weight!
More than half of the oxygen we breathe is produced by microalgae in the ocean! If oceans become filled with plastic and other pollutants, microalgae will quickly disappear.
When microplastics accumulate in organisms beyond a certain limit, they can cause serious health problems, such as developmental and reproductive pathologies. Microplastics eventually enter the human body through the food chain. [1]
When Anna was a child, she played more often at the beach than in the backyard. She would take long walks on the beach, watch the tides, collect fossils and enjoy nature. But gradually, she began to notice a new invasive species becoming more common on the coast: plastic. Wanting to remind people of the impact plastic has on life on Earth, Anna became a marine biologist and decided to start collecting plastic. The new species was even given a name: Plasticus maritimus.