The protagonist of a beloved children's song was nearly killed by plastic pollution recently in the Bahamas. Luckily, one fisherman happened upon the baby shark (doo-doo doo-doo doo-doo) that had gotten trapped in a disposable plastic bag and was able to rescue it.
Instagrammer FlyFishingNassau (@flyfishingnassau) noticed the baby nurse shark attempting to swim while fully enveloped in the plastic bag. "Oh, this is why you don't litter, man," he said, audibly distressed. "That's awful."
Luckily, FlyFishingNassau retrieved the little shark and released it without hurting it.
"How did it get in there?" FlyFishingNassau's companion asked.
"It must have swam into there," FlyFishingNassau replied.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species lists Atlantic nurse sharks as vulnerable. According to the IUCN, threats to the species include overfishing, habitat loss caused by development, temperature extremes caused by our planet's overheating, and pollution — including single-use plastic waste.
An astonishing amount of plastic (even including plastic that people attempt to throw away) finds its way into our oceans regularly, where it has a direct negative impact on marine life. Marine animals eat plastic after mistaking it for food, become trapped like the baby nurse shark did, and now exist with ever-increasing amounts of microplastics in their systems.
Although single-use plastics are ubiquitous in modern life, it doesn't have to be that way. A recent report on the effectiveness of plastic bag bans found that areas that enacted those bans drastically reduced single-use plastic and that people barely missed the non-reusable bags.
You can also help reduce the amount of plastic in the oceans by swapping plastics for eco-friendly alternatives and choosing sustainable brands when you shop.
The commenters on FlyFishingNassau's Instagram video were horrified to see the baby shark caught in the plastic bag.
"Disturbing to watch. That poor little thing," wrote one commenter.
"Thank you for helping it," wrote another.
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