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Heartbreaking Photos Show What Your Trash Does To Animals

They mistake it for food, they get tangled in it, they die from it.
By 

Reporter, HuffPost

and

Photo Editor, HuffPost

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This story is part of a series on ocean plastics.

At least 8 million tons of plastics wind up in the oceans each year ― that’s like dumping the contents of a garbage truck into marine waters every minute. This trash ― be it bottle caps, balloons or fishing twine ― can take a toll on marine life.

When animals find plastic refuse floating around in the ocean, they can mistake it for food and eat it. Over time, if they eat enough, they can begin to feel full and die of malnutrition. They can also get entangled in discarded packaging materials or abandoned fishing gear, leading to injury and sometimes death.

There isn’t reliable data on how many animals are harmed by ocean pollution each year, but a study from 2015 ― which found incidences of around 44,000 animals becoming entangled in or swallowing debris since the 1960s ― is thought by its authors to “underestimate” the problem.

Check out the gallery below to see heartbreaking images of animals harmed by plastic trash:

Missouri Department of Conservation
Turtle with plastic around its shell.
Chris Jordan/US Fish and Wildlife Service
A dead albatross chick with plastic marine debris in its stomach. Photographed on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean in September 2009.
Karen Doody/Stocktrek Images via Getty Images
Blue striped grunt fish caught in red plastic band in Caribbean Sea.
Pamela Denmon USFWS
Bird appearing to be strangled by a balloon string.
Aaron ODea/Marine Photobank
Shark with debris in its mouth.
Martin Harvey via Getty Images
Cape fur seal that died of suffocation from plastic around its neck.
David Cayless/Marine Photobank
Bird caught in plastic debris.
NOAA
Green sea turtle entangled in debris -- for air-breathing organisms, debris entanglement can prevent animals from being able to swim to the surface, causing them to drown.
Jonathan Bird via Getty Images
Lemon shark with plastic bag caught around its gills in the Bahamas.
Kevin Schafer via Getty Images
Northern elephant seal with plastic scar on Guadalupe Island in Mexico.
Christoph Noever/University of Bergen
Scientist reveals the plastic bags pulled from the intestines of a beached goose-beaked whale in Norway
VCG via Getty Images
Bao XiShun, the world's tallest man, retrieves plastic from the stomach of a sick dolphin as workers hold back its jaws at an aquarium in Fushun, China, in 2006. Xishun came to the rescue of two sick dolphins after they had swallowed plastic from their pool and vets were unable to reach it to remove it.
Blair Witherington/NOAA
Sea turtle that ingested a balloon.
NOAA
NOAA divers release seal from marine debris entanglement, which can lead to injury or death in marine animals.
Getty Images
Stork covered in a plastic bag in Spain.
NOAA
A deceased Laysan Albatross lies on the ground in Midway Atoll, with an exposed stomach filled with debris it consumed around its coastal habitat. Marine animals cannot digest debris and often die due to starvation.

There are some small ways you can help curb the amount of plastic you waste on a daily basis: Start by consuming fewer single-use items ― like drinking straws and takeout containers ― and recycle what you do use.

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