Why do you think these fabulous creatures are lying dead on our beaches?

"Litterbug". A poem by Gabriel Rosenstock.

Told by LIAM

Where is this beach? Does it look like somewhere you'd like to swim?

Fishing nets get lost during storms but nobody goes out to find them again and they keep Ghost Fishing for years and years...fish get caught in them and are left to rot.

Round-the-world sailors are now in danger of being sunk from hitting huge metal containers that have fallen off a ship. It's cheaper for the shipping company to write off the loss of the container than be bothered trying to find it again.

A dead sperm whale was found near New Zealand. It had died because there was over 40 pounds weight of plastic in its stomach. It couldn't fit anything else so it starved.

Turtles only eat jellyfish. Lots of turtles that are found dead now have plastic bags in their guts because they thought they were jellyfish.

Baby birds eat everything the parent birds give them. Parent birds work hard to find food but unfortunately sometimes its bits of plastic like coke bottle lids that they find - so the baby chicks die eventually.

 

All pollution is caused by humans. Every bit of it. That's what makes it pollution. It shouldn't be in the environment. So you can start by making sure all your rubbish is put away carefully into bins and collected. You could also put pressure on companies you know about to put away their rubbish properly.

This basking shark got caught up in a lobster pot train. Basking sharks only eat plankton. See where his mouth is cut already from the rope? He was freed by some divers who found him in Co Galway.