It is reported that annually, humans generate over 300 million tons of plastic. This amount equals to the total body weight of the whole global adult human population and almost half of the plastic is utilized once before it is thrown away. These plastics somehow find their way into the oceans. Therefore it won’t be surprising if the year 2050, every seabird on the earth’s globe will contain plastic in their stomach, according to a January report published by the World Economic Forum.

Current estimates reveal that a growing 8 million tons of plastic are added to the oceans all over the world each year, which amounts to a dump truck full of plastic with every passing minute. With these estimates, scientists are convinced that people who consume average quantities of seafood are consuming 11,000 particles of plastic on average each year.

According to some experts who spoke to Truthout regarding the topic, they confirmed that these tendencies will plausibly continue. Biological oceanographer with the National Oceanography Centre at Britain's University of Southampton, Dr. Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez, is very disturbed with the public’s lack of concern about the urgency of the situation.

Iglesias-Rodriguez told Truthout that marine pollution is a grand issue. There is this notion that oceans have limitless inaction, however, nanoparticles of plastic consumed by marine animals and the food chain are altering fish fertility rates. This in-turn affects food security and coastal populations. Pollution is causing a huge impact on the oceans and it urgently needs to be dealt with.

The unexpected

In existence is the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," in the North Pacific Ocean, an occurrence scientists refer to as the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Miriam Goldstein, a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, warned that humans are causing large-scale alteration to the entire ecological system of the ocean by incorporating large amounts of plastic into it.

Goldstein, the lead author of a study that showed just how deeply plastic has already embedded itself into the oceanic ecosystem, discovered eggs on the pieces of plastic. These eggs were sea skater/ insect eggs.

People consuming fish with plastic in their system are at high risk of contracting cancer as well as other health problems.

A study revealed that almost 10 percent of the fish gathered during a trip to the gyre contained plastic waste in their stomachs. The numbers in use of plastic is not likely to reduce anytime soon. In fact, it has increased 20 times in the last 50 years and only 5 percent of plastics are effectively recycled. Plastic production is presumed to increase in the year 2050 by at least .Only 5 percent of plastics are effectively recycled, and the production of plastics is expected to billion tons.

What are some of the very innovative solutions that can help curb this situation?

We are polluting our waters and taking too much in the act of fishing, bycatch and overfishing. We are destroying the edge of the ocean, the areas where there are the most reefs, biodiversity, mangroves and seagrass. Therefore, we need to cut down on the pollution, take less out and safeguard the ocean edges by naming some of them out of reach to human activity. We are living in an era of climate change, fisheries, pollution and habitat destruction. We also experience the adverse effects from this nightmare; collapsing fisheries, changes in the Arctic and the hardships communities that reside there face, and the rate and intensity of storms. If we don’t make the changes now, then we can only expect the worse for the future.