A large wave slapped the side of the cargo ship, pulling the blue plastic bag free. With each passing day, the bag floated a little further out to sea until it reached its end destination – the big ‘ocean garbage patch’. This was also known as a gyre. Surrounding the blue plastic bag were great clumps of knotty seaweed tangled with foreign visitors – plastic bottles once filled with lotion or shampoo; bottle caps and old shoes; styrofoam cups and plastic straws. This was a gathering place for litter that had travelled from faraway places, brought together by the ocean currents. Fish, sea mammals and seabirds fed on the pieces of trash, afterwards feeling sick and some even dying. And all because many people, in many places, didn’t do the right thing – like the school kids who threw their blue plastic bag on the ground causing it to start its journey to this huge ocean garbage patch. https://www.knzb.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Segment12.mp3 Return to the beginning Back Next page