Marine Litter Vital Graphics

DEFINITIONS

Size does matter

Animal groups a ected by entanglement, su ocation and/or ingestion

Debris size category

MEGA

1 metre

Plastic bottle cap

Whales, seals, dolphins, turtles, birds

MACRO

2.5 centimetre

28 mm

77 mm

Birds, fish, invertebrates

6 mm

MESO

lter

Cigarette

5 millimetre

Great black-backed gull

Polystyrene pellets

3 mm 2 mm

1 mm

MICRO

Fish, invertebrates, other filter feeders

1 micron*

Particle invisible to naked eye

Invertebrates, other filter feeders

NANO

Source: GESAMP, Sources, fate and e ects of microplastics in the marine environment: A global assessment, 2015

* one thousandth of a millimetre

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Marine Litter Vital Graphics