1. ORCA’s Whale Education Month: Marine Litter What is marine litter?

2. What words come to mind when thinking of whales and dolphins?

3. But they are in danger…

4. Activity Sheet: Save Harry the harbour porpoise!
Threats Maze
Activity Sheet: Save Harry the harbour porpoise!

5. Threats to whales & dolphins
Whaling
Bycatch &
Overfishing
Habitat loss
Pollution – marine litter
Getting hit by ships

6. What is Marine Litter?
Marine litter is any man­made object lost, discarded, disposed of or abandoned that enters the sea.
It may enter the sea from a ship, or from land when washed out to sea via rivers, streams and drains.
Humans dump more than 100 million tonnes of rubbish each year into the world’s ocean
Marine litter is entirely due to human activity, and therefore it is down to us to stop it!

7. Where does marine litter come from?
Activity Sheet: Land or Sea

8. 20% comes from the sea 80% comes from the land
Dropping litter
Plastic items being flushed
Cigarettes dropped on the floor
Overflowing rubbish bins
Landfills near rivers/the sea
Shocking fact is that most of the litter that ends up in the sea is actually from the land.
Every small piece of rubbish we drop on land eventually ends up in the sea.
The wind can blow it into the streams/rivers/drains and the rain washes every tiny bit of litter into the streams/rivers/drains and where do these end up? In the sea.
Also, all of the plastic that gets put down the toilet – cotton buds & facewipes end up in the sea because they do not get filtered out in our sewage system.
Balloon releases

9. What are the top items found on a beach?

10. Caps & lids (bottle caps, pen lids)
Packets (crisp packets, sweet wrappers)
Caps & lids (bottle caps, pen lids)
Cotton buds
Cigarettes
Plastic pieces
Cutlery/straws
Fishing line/nets
Glass
Wet wipes

11. Caps & lids (bottle caps, pen lids)1.
Plastic pieces 2.
Packets (crisp packets, sweet wrappers) 3.
Glass 4.
Cigarettes 5.
Caps & lids (bottle caps, pen lids) 6.
Wet wipes 7.
Cotton buds 8.
Fishing line/nets 9.
Cutlery/straws

12. What do most of these items all have in common?
They are made of plastic
Plastic is a man made material that is made out of a combination of chemicals
Plastic is not a natural material
Plastic never goes away, it stays in our environment forever
So it is very harmful to our environment and the animals that live on our planet

13. Thank you for taking part in ORCA’s Whale Education Month!
Photo: Mark Carwardine