The ocean is a beautiful place to sail and catch sightings of dolphins and other marine life, but you can also find strange things there. One explorer shared a video of the debris she discovered in the water.
Kayleigh Grant (@mermaid.kayleigh) shared a video on TikTok of her collecting litter in the ocean. Other users were grateful to her for helping keep the sea clean and also surprised about what she found on her expedition.
@mermaid.kayleigh Theres always some piece of marine debris that surprises me each week. That huge mooring line was pretty crazy but I know that ghost gear is a huge issue when it comes to marine debris. I wish more consumers would swap to reuseable water bottles like yeti or hydroflasks. It saves you money & saves the planet! The plastic leaching into your drinking water is also cancer causing so there are so many benefits to making the swap! @KaimanaOceanSafari 🗑️♻️🌊 #marinedebris #cleanuptheocean #ocean #hawaii #oceancleanup #trashinthesea ♬ light refreshing fun summer hawaii reggae latin song b(1451394) - TERAMURA SO
In the video, Kayleigh picks up several plastic bottles, a Coke can, and even a Pringles can with her net. She explains how dangerous the plastics are to fish and humans. The plastic breaks down into microplastics that marine life ingests, which can kill them. Humans also consume fish with these particles in them, which are cancer-causing.
Kayleigh captioned the post: "Theres always some piece of marine debris that surprises me each week. That huge mooring line was pretty crazy, but I know that ghost gear is a huge issue when it comes to marine debris."
In the video, you can see a long piece of debris that one user thought was a snake, but as Kayleigh explained, it's a piece that has gotten away from a cruise ship or a cargo ship.
According to the National Library of Medicine, these microplastics can affect humans' respiratory, reproductive, digestive, endocrine, and immune systems.
Not only can marine life ingest the microplastics, but the marine debris can also harm them by the animals getting tangled in it. It can also pose a threat to their habitat, per the National Ocean Atmospheric Administration.
This debris can damage beautiful places, as is the case in Hawai'i, where another TikToker showed plastic littered across the beach.
You can help make a difference and keep these beautiful destinations clean by using less plastic. You can do this by ditching single-use coffee mugs and water bottles. You also save money by using reusable ones.
Another option is bringing your own reusable grocery bags. You can even get totes from your favorite artists and brands so you can carry your groceries in style.
One TikTok user was amazed at what the poster shared: "I don't understand why us humans put trash in the ocean or the beach."
Another one said: "Thank you for keeping the oceans clean."
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