Category: Plastics

Along the sandy beach, you’ll find seashells, tiny crabs and—if you look up in the sky—gulls flying overhead. But a little distance from where the ocean meets the land, some beaches have sand dunes. These large mounds of...

Throughout our ocean, there are some marine species that are so massive or unique looking that they just might explain ancient legends of sea monsters. The giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne) is a quintessential example of...

In many ways, the ocean is “ground zero” for the plastic pollution crisis. It is so vast, yet plastics have been found in every corner of the ocean—from the deepest trench to the most remote Arctic ice sheets. Sea turtle...

I’ve had the opportunity to travel to beaches around the world, from the white sands of the Dominican Republic to the fjords of Alaska. Even in places that couldn’t be more different from each other, there’s one kind of...

Have you ever walked along the beach and spotted tiny plastic balls or discs? They may look like grains of sand or fish eggs—they can be clear or colored and are round, sometimes with flat sides. What are those small pla...

Early last year, I had a front-row seat at the biggest international effort ever to tackle the scourge of plastic pollution. The United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, agreed to begi...

In early 1973, a group of scientists published an article in the journal Nature reflecting on a research expedition they had taken the year before, in an area of the Pacific Ocean some 600 miles from...

Even more than fireworks and flags, the thing that I love most about the Fourth of July is the food. A picnic, BBQ, cookout—whatever you call it, nothing beats al fresco dining. Every year, I gather with friends and fami...

I remember when I first heard about the #TeamSeas campaign. It was March 2020. Two YouTubers by the names of MrBeast and Mark Rober approached Ocean Conservancy to talk about their idea to create a major social movement...

Here in the United States, it’s sometimes hard to imagine what a world without single-use plastic packaging might look like. Every trip to the grocery store—no matter how diligent you might be bringing reusable bags or s...