Expert diver makes frustrating discovery while cleaning up ocean trash: 'Floating around for a long time'

Plastic pollution is a big problem for marine life. One diver and ocean tour guide based in Hawaiʻi recently filmed a video of their crew pulling seemingly endless amounts of trash out of the water.

"This week we found a lot of old plastic that has been in the ocean floating around for a long time," Kayleigh (@mermaid.kayleigh) said. "It's important to remove trash out of the ocean as animals could become entangled in this debris, or, as it breaks down into smaller pieces of plastic, they may even ingest it."

Kayleigh and Co. also found a tiny crab "hitchhiker" hanging out on one of the pieces of plastic they pulled out of the ocean. They transferred it into a piece of pineapple and returned it to the water.

As Kayleigh pointed out, ocean plastic poses many dangers to marine life. Marine animals can become trapped inside pieces of waste, often resulting in their deaths. They can also eat pieces of plastic that they mistake for food, blocking their digestive systems. 

As plastic breaks down over time into smaller and smaller pieces, it becomes microplastics — tiny pieces of plastic that are accumulating in our oceans at nearly incomprehensible levels. These microplastics then interact with the changing ocean water chemistry caused by the overheating of our planet to create new and unforeseen problems for marine species.

Though it is impossible to accurately count, a rough estimate places the number of pieces of plastic trash in our ocean at around 170 trillion.