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The Plastic Pollution of Fishing Gear Is Much Worse Than Straws
If you care about the environment, it’s time to start talking about the 640,000 tons of discarded fishing gear killing ocean creatures
On good days, Dr. Sarah Sharp gets to watch living North Atlantic Right Whales. The school-bus sized, dark creatures, with scoop-like mouths and white spots on their face, sometimes launch themselves out of the water, like leaping ballerinas. They’ll breach and play with each other, a behavior once thought to be a mating display, but was later found to take place outside of the mating season. It’s likely the animals are just socializing, having fun with the other whales.
Sharp also enjoys watching them feeding peacefully. “They literally just mow the grass underwater with their mouths open, filter feeding with their baleen, getting all the little crustaceans out of the water column,” Sharp explained. “It’s kind of a zen like experience to watch these animals, going so smoothly along, just under the water surface.”
Unfortunately, Dr. Sharp, a veterinarian and marine mammal stranding coordinator at…
