Reflection

A souvenir plate stands on the wooden shelf in my house, visible for all to see. It depicts my earliest memory of water as a toddler bathing in my father’s arms at a beautiful beach in Phuket, Thailand. That dreamy experience quickly came to an end, however, when a “jellyfish” accidentally touched my baby feet. I came out of the water weeping, fearful that I had been stung by the unwarranted intruder. My father calmed me down and reassured me that the “jellyfish” was just a harmless plastic bag. More than a decade later, I became increasingly aware of the dangers posed to both marine wildlife and humanity thanks to 8 million tons of “harmless” plastic entering our ocean every year. Not only does the digestion of micro plastics result in the death of millions of marine animals each year, but the toxic chemicals that plague the marine food chain could also enter human bodies and jeopardize our health and safety.