In-class blog question - Ocean Plastic

One of the biggest concerns with the oceans is the exfoliating beads that are used in many of the shower gels. Exfoliating beads are lightweight and tiny so they can easily find away to many of our major water ways. Sometimes these microbeads are mistaken as food by small fish and aquatic animals. Exfoliating beads are can be very detrimental to the lower trophic levels of many of the ocean food chains. This leads to loss of food for higher trophic levels, creating a domino effect that destroys the entire ecosystem. These beads have taken out many aquatic ecosystems in the ocean from the bottom to the top. Exfoliating beads are also a problem for freshwater ecosystems. Studies have shown that any of Canada’s great lakes have extremely high numbers of microbeads. Exfoliating beads are non biodegradable and therefor will stick around our oceans forever unless they are removed from our worlds water. 

Below is a website that has an online sing up for a petition to ban exfoliating beads in Canada. The petition outlines many of the problems involved with exfoliating microbeads and has a copy of the petition letter that will be sent to the government. 

https://forcechange.com/73040/ban-exfoliating-microbeads-for-their-harm-to-aquatic-life/