Purpose : to determine the effect of plastic garbage pollution on sea animals.
Things Required:
Rubber band
Directions:
Hook one end of the rubber band around your little finger. Stretch the rubber band across the back of your hand and hook the free end on your thumb. Try to remove the rubber band without touching anything.
Seals and fish do not have hands. How can they remove the plastic rings from six-packs of beverages if they get these around their bodies? How is the garbage that is dumped in the ocean affecting the sea organisms?
This Is What Happens:
It is very difficult to remove the rubber band from your hand. Seals, fish and other animals that get tangled with plastic rings find it equally difficult to remove them.
Science Behind It:
The plastic items in garbage are deadly to sea animals. Turtles swallow floating plastic bags because they mistake them for jellyfish. Their digestive tracts becomes blocked and they die. The animals that get plastic rings around their bodies often cannot remove them and they also die. It is still being researched, but it could take as long as 300 years for plastic garbage to decompose in sea water. The trapped animal cannot wait for this. We must take action to prevent the pollution of our oceans.
