To the dismay of environmentalists around the world, Donald Trump has rolled back efforts to keep single-use plastics out of the sea.
On 10 February, Donald Trump signed an executive order ordering government agencies to start using plastic straws instead of paper alternatives.
While Trump bizarrely claimed that plastic isn’t ‘going to affect a shark very much as they are eating’, scientists couldn’t disagree more.
As these heartbreaking images reveal, plastic pollution can have a deadly impact on every inhabitant of our oceans.
From the hermit crabs forced to live in toothpaste lids to the sperm whales choked to death by discarded rubbish, no creature is safe from plastic.
And, as researchers discover plastic waste at the very deepest parts of the sea floor, there is no longer any part of the world that is unaffected.
Dr Samantha Garrard, a marine biologist at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, told MailOnline: ‘The return of the straw is a big step back and shows the world that the US will not be progressive in this arena.
‘Plastic accumulates over hundreds of years, so any slowing of the pace of reducing plastic leakage into the environment will have an impact on marine life.’
This week Donald Trump rolled back measures designed to avoid single-use plastics as startling images show that, rather than shells, hermit crabs are turning to metal bottle caps and bulb fragments to call home
Trump’s decision has been met with dismay by environmentalists and scientists who warn that single-use plastics like straws cause serious harm to ocean wildlife. Pictured: Marine biologists remove a plastic straw from the nose of a sea turtle
President Donald Trump told reporters he was signing an executive order to bring back plastic straws. He also claimed without evidence that plastic isn’t ‘going to affect a shark very much as they are eating’
Each year, humanity churns out an estimated 359 million tonnes of plastic to make bags, straws, packaging, and all the conveniences of modern life.
Although only a small fraction of this ends up in the oceans, that still means that between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes of waste ends up in the sea.
At the highest estimate, that is the equivalent of more than two plastic Great Pyramids of Giza.
Recent studies suggest that there are now 171 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, a significant increase from the 16 trillion pieces found in 2015.
While this waste is spread fairly throughout the entire ocean system, much of it ends up clustered in vast plastic islands.
Dr Garrard says: ‘The worst hotspots for plastic are coastal areas, particularly those near rivers that emit large quantities of plastics.
‘But once plastic ends up in the open ocean, then it tends to accumulate in ocean gyres.’
These gyres are areas of circling water which trap vast quantities of waste in areas like the Mediterranean Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Experts from the University of Warsaw analysed online photos, taken by wildlife enthusiasts, and recorded 386 individuals using ‘artificial shells’
According to researchers is not yet clear whether this new behaviour is harmful to the creatures, who need ‘armour’ to protect their soft abdomen
Estimates from last year suggest that this region is so polluted that it now has more pieces of plastic than living organisms.
As plastic pollution spreads through the ocean, one saddening side effect is that more life is forced to make their homes amidst the rubbish.
Last year experts from the University of Warsaw analysed online photos, taken by wildlife enthusiasts, and recorded 386 individuals using ‘artificial shells’.
Heartbreaking pictures show how hermit crabs have been forced to use plastic waste as shells.
Driven by their instinct to armour themselves the crabs have been seen carrying around toothpaste caps, bottle tops, and even broken lightbulb fragments.
Lead researcher Professor Marta Szulkin previously said that these had been found in 10 out of the 16 known species of hermit crab and in all tropical regions of Earth.
Likewise, just as ocean life will often cluster around a floating tree trunk for shelter, images now show that fish are living within vast rafts of plastic.
Studies have shown that shellfish, crustaceans, sea stars, sponges and even fish will cling to drifting waste.
Although plastic waste might seem like an attractive shelter for ocean wildlife, it can often become deadly once the animals become snared. Pictured a 1.6-metre shark with a large chunk of its skin cut out by a plastic ring
Rings of plastic like frisbees are a particularly dangerous trap for sea life as they can become stuck around animals’ necks. Pictured A seal with a green frisbee around its neck taken on Horsey Beach, Norfolk in October 2019
But, rather than being a safe new home, these plastic reefs expose ocean life to toxic chemicals and high doses of microplastics.
Dr Garard says: ‘All plastics will eventually break down into microplastics, which are accumulating in our oceans (1um-5mm).
‘These can be ingested by small animals and are likely to reduce their health if they consume them in great enough quantities. Plastic takes a long time to break down.’
Research has even shown that plastic waste increases the risk of invasive species reaching new shores.
After the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami in Japan, scientists found more than 300 species washed up on the beaches of Washington, USA inside plastic waste which had been swept across the ocean.
Many of these species have a risk of becoming invasive once they arrive and could further damage local species.
The biggest danger that plastic poses to marine life is its capacity to choke, strangle, and poison animals.
Since plastic breaks down so slowly, pieces of litter drift in the seas for decades where they can tangle or be swallowed by animals.
This bloodied dolphin was trapped by heavy plastic usually used to secure boxes of goods in Porthkidney Sands, Cornwall
This duck was found last February in Wales with what appeared to be the safety ring from the top of an oil can around its head and stuck in its beak
Turtles often mistake pieces of plastic for floating jellyfish which make up a large part of their diet. Many sea turtles have been found with pieces of plastic bags in their stomachs
‘We know that when marine megafauna ingests large plastic items, this can cause gut blockage and they can die, or at least have a reduced quality of life.’ says Dr Garrard.
‘Sheet plastics such as plastic bags and rice sacks seem to be particularly dangerous if ingested.
‘Circular and entangling plastics such as fishing nets, bailing twine and frisbees can cause entanglement and again, either cause death or severe trauma.’
Footage from the documentary Blue Planet II shows the saddening moment a young sperm whale tries to eat a plastic bucket after mistaking it for food.
Likewise, a video taken by a snorkeler in Hawaii records a turtle choking on a piece of plastic which it swallowed.
In one particularly harrowing video, recorded in 2015, marine biologists in Costa Rica found a turtle with a small piece of plastic emerging from its nose.
When the researchers pulled on the plastic fragment, they withdrew a 12cm plastic straw from the turtle’s bleeding nostril.
Addressing the camera, the researcher says: ‘This is the reason we do not need plastic straws.’
Footage from Blue Planet II shows a sperm whale trying to eat a plastic bucket after mistaking it for food. Megafauna like whales often consume plastic which can lead to poor life quality and even death
A study found that 30 per cent of turtles and 71 per cent of seabirds have been found with plastic material located in their stomachs.
It’s also estimated that one million seabirds and 100,000 other types of marine animals die from ingesting plastic on an annual basis.
Dr Bethany Clark, a researcher for Birdlife International, told MailOnline: ‘Plastic pollution is a threat to marine wildlife around the world. Many seabirds are particularly vulnerable and have suffered from physical injuries after eating plastic and toxic chemicals that leach from degrading pieces.
‘Single-use plastics, including straws, are convenient for a few minutes but can stay in the environment for generations, and avoiding them is a good way to reduce harm to wild animals.’
Yet one of the biggest threats to wildlife comes from entanglement in plastic waste, particularly in fishing nets and lines.
So-called ‘ghost gear’ includes fishing nets, lines, and crabbing pots which have been lost or abandoned by commercial fishing operations.
Some estimates suggest that this could be the deadliest form of plastic pollution, threatening two-thirds of all ocean life and making up almost half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Nets can linger in the oceans for up to 600 years before breaking down into microplastics and are particularly capable of ensnaring all sizes of animals.
Large animals like sharks and whales can become snared in nets which can leave them unable to move, eventually starving them to death
A juvenile grey seal was reported to Mystic Aquarium’s rescue team on Sunday and was found in a devastating state on Block Island the next day, Earth Day after becoming snared in fishing tackle
The most dangerous form of pollution in the ocean is fishing equipment such as nets which threaten two thirds of all marine species. This image shows a sea turtle tangled in an abandoned fishing net
Once tangled, even large creatures like whales or sharks are unable to free themselves and are either wounded or starved to death.
In the upper Gulf of California, Mexico, illegally abandoned gillnets have driven the vaquita porpoise to the brink of extinction – only around 10 individuals remain.
Ghost gear also tangles itself around marine habitats like coral reefs, smothering these vital ecosystems.
Perhaps most depressingly of all, researchers have now shown that there is almost nowhere on Earth which has not been affected by plastic pollution.
In 2018, divers discovered a plastic bag 36,000ft (10,898m) below the surface of the Pacific in the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest ocean trench.
This bag was just one of 3,000 pieces of man-made debris discovered in the deep ocean over the last 30 years.
More than a third of that litter was macro-plastics, large pieces of plastic, 89 per cent of which came from single-use products such as plastic straws.
In 2016, researchers from the University of Oxford found the first evidence that deep-sea animals had been ingesting microplastics.
Plastic waste has been found even in the deepest parts of the ocean. This image shows a paper nautilus hanging on a plastic bag 500m beneath the water in the Philippines
Researchers have even found a plastic bag at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean, 36,000ft (10,898m) below the surface
The British Antarctic Survey says that animals in the remote Southern Ocean still cannot escape plastic pollution and frequently become tangled in nets or ingest deadly amounts of plastic
Researchers found plastic fibres inside the bodies of creatures including hermit crabs, squat lobsters and sea cucumbers at depths of between 300m and 1800m.
Lead researcher Dr Michelle Taylor said in a statement at the time: ‘What’s particularly alarming is that these microplastics were found in the deep ocean, thousands of miles away from land-based sources of pollution.’
These findings are part of the reason that environmental experts have been so critical of Trump’s decision to reintroduce plastic straws.
Dr Eva Jimenez-Guri, a marine biologist from the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, told MailOnline: ‘I think it is a very backward move, because there is absolutely no need to use them [plastic straws] as there are alternatives.
‘Anything that is actively stoping the curb on the use of single-use plastics for no essential uses, such as this, should be condemned.’
Likewise, researchers from the British Antarctic Survey report that plastic debris ‘regularly’ washes up on the beaches near its research stations.
They report many cases in which birds and mammals such as seals have become tangled in the debris.