Scientists Offers a Solution in Combatting Ocean Pollution Plastic bottles floating in the water; bags in turtle bellies; Covid-19 masks dancing in the surf: few photographs are as revolting as those depicting the pollution of our seas.
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IMAGE: Between 1990 and 2015 alone, up to 100 million tons of trash are believed to have entered the oceans. view more
Credit: Photo: Brian Yurasits via Unsplash
Plastic bottles drifting in the sea; bags in the stomachs of turtles; Covid-19 masks dancing in the surf: few images are as unpleasant to look at as those that show the contamination of our oceans. And few environmental issues are as urgent and as present in the public awareness. Most people have an emotional connection to the sea. They think of ocean pollution as an attack on a place they long for, said Nikoleta Bellou, marine scientist at Hereon s Institute of Coastal System - Analysis and Modeling. Between 1990 and 2015 alone, an estimated 100 million metric tons of mostly plastic waste entered the oceans. For that instance the study fits to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which started this year to emphasize a sustainable use of the seas.