Ocean reports

A staggering 6.4 million tonnes of marine litter is dumped in the ocean every year, it may fragment but does not biodegrade, persisting for hundreds or thousands of years. Single use plastic bags are a significant component of marine debris – more than eight billion plastic bags end up as litter across the EU each year

A briefing to the 64th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission, in Panama, on the impacts of marine debris on cetaceans. Marine debris has the potential to affect all trophic levels and the entire food chain, from planktonic microorganisms through to marine megafauna including cetaceans