SACRAMENTO — Isolated stories of whales and other marine wildlife washing ashore with bellies full of shopping bags and other plastic waste have trickled into the media in recent years.
But the problem of plastic in the ocean is far more widespread than those instances alone suggest and could push some species closer to the brink of extinction, according to a report released Thursday by Oceana, a wildlife advocacy group.
The report found nearly 1,800 instances since 2009 where a marine mammal or sea turtle swallowed or became entangled in plastic waste along the coast of the United States.
Until now, there has never been a single study that compiled all evidence of instances where large sea animals were harmed by plastic pollution, said Kimberly Warner, a senior scientist at Oceana and the report’s author.
“These are animals on our shores. This problem belongs to us,” she said. “We are the world’s largest producer of plastic waste.”
The report, titled “Choked, Strangled, Drowned: The plastic crisis unfolding in our oceans,” paints a grim picture of the harm caused to ocean mega-fauna — large sea creatures such as sea turtles and mammals such as whales and seals.
Most of the cases, 90%, involved animals that consumed plastic. Many of them were found dead with plastic wrappers, bags or other items filling their throats or stomachs.
In one California case, a long-beaked common dolphin was “found with a food wrapper lodged in its esophagus,” the report states.
Animals who faced entanglement from plastic comprised the other 10%, and often had shipping straps wrapped around their necks.
The vast majority of the animals died from eating plastic, Warner said. Even those who were rehabilitated and freed were unlikely to survive after being returned to the wild due to their injuries, she said.
“It is just extremely depressing to see all of these stories and imagine what it must have felt like for all of these animals,” Warner said. “It’s very, very painful for these organisms.”
Oceana warned that the data is just a glimpse into the number of ocean animals harmed by plastic.
Many instances aren’t observed or go unreported, and the report doesn’t begin to tell the story of fish species that regularly ingest smaller micro-plastics. Sea turtles and mammals are near the top of the oceanic food chain.
Hundreds of instances in the report have never been publicly reported before now, Warner said. Oceana uncovered many by examining necropsy reports for endangered and protected species found dead on the shore.
State Sen. Ben Allen, D-Santa Monica, said while the report’s findings are “extremely troubling,” they are not surprising. Allen has for years proposed legislation to phase out single-use plastics in California, without success.
“The harm to marine animals this study has revealed likely represents not even a fraction of the devastating impacts this crisis has wrought,” he said. “It is a moral imperative we address this crisis.”
Overall, the report found animals from 40 different species were harmed by plastic, with 88% of the species listed as endangered or threatened under federal law. They included six species of sea turtles, three species of seals and three species of whales.
On the West Coast, the most harmed species was the familiar California sea lion. Oceana found 66 instances where sea lions had ingested plastic or became entangled in it.
Allen and environmental groups said the findings show state legislators must act. This year, a pair of identical bills, AB1080 and SB54, that sought to reduce plastic use narrowly died on the final night of the legislative session.
Industry groups said the bills would have imposed unrealistic mandates and hurt industries trying to survive during the pandemic. Plastics companies poured millions of dollars into defeating the bills.
“They are relying on lobbying and political contributions to keep from being regulated, but it’s clear that the current situation is not sustainable,” said Nick Lapis, director of advocacy for Californians Against Waste.
Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @dustingardiner
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