Life for larval fish was a crapshoot even before they met our plastic trash. Off Hawaii, a single eight-minute tow of the NOAA team’s net yields a plethora of living organisms and plastic.

There’s the plastic waste we can see—bottles, bags, discarded fishing nets, and all manner of other ... the impact these particles are having on fish, the food chain, and ultimately, us.

It is believed the birds drowned after becoming entangled while diving into the sea for the fish trapped in the net.