Two Oceans, One Choice

About this drawing

Clean vs polluted ocean scenes make a big problem easy to see. On the healthy side, fish, sea turtles and dolphins glide past coral; on the other, the very same animals swim through bottles, cups, straws and bags.

Most ocean trash starts on land. It blows out of trash cans and landfills, gets washed into storm drains and rides rivers all the way to the coast. Ocean currents then carry it across the globe and gather huge amounts in swirling zones, the best known being the Great Pacific Garbage Patch between Hawaii and California.

Plastic does not simply disappear. Sunlight and waves break it into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics, which are swallowed by plankton, fish and seabirds and travel up the food chain. That is why many cities limit single-use plastics and volunteers gather every year for beach cleanups.

Ask kids which half of this ocean they would rather swim in, where they think the trash came from and what they can do, like carrying a reusable bottle or picking up litter at the beach. Small habits, repeated by millions of people, really do add up.

• ocean pollution
• plastic
• microplastics
• sea life
• environment