What’s Haunting Our Ocean?

When autumn comes around, cue the leaves changing color, pumpkin spice, candies, apple picking and my favorite part of all: the spooky traditions of Halloween. From haunted houses to scary movies, one of the most fun parts of Halloween is getting a little scared.

But have you ever wondered, what is spooking sea life? Believe it or not, one of the scariest and deadliest things to marine life is plastic pollution. But unlike the ghosts, ghouls and monsters haunting our imaginations, plastic pollution is a very real and deadly threat to the animals that rely on a healthy ocean.

Here are a few examples of the types of plastic pollution haunting our ocean:

Ghost Gear

Fishing gear is designed to catch fish, and if lost in the ocean, it continues to catch and kill marine life indefinitely, hence the name “ghost gear” or “ghost fishing”—as if a ghost is still fishing. Ghost gear is the single deadliest form of plastic pollution to marine life. A study of 870 ghost nets recovered from the Puget Sound in Washington state found that they contained more than 32,000 marine animals, including more than 1,000 fish, 500 seabirds and 20 marine mammals.

Fortunately, Ocean Conservancy leads the Global Ghost Gear Initiative^® (GGGI), which is the largest alliance dedicated to tackling ghost gear on a global scale. Our GGGI works with everyone from small-scale fishers to government leaders to remove lost fishing gear from the ocean and promote ways to prevent gear from being lost in the first place.

Balloons

To most people, the scariest part of the famous horror movie “It” is the clown, but to a seabird, the red balloon he holds is even more terrifying. According to a 2019 study, balloons are the deadliest type of plastic to seabirds. Balloons are 32 times more likely to kill seabirds than hard plastics and even a small shred of a popped balloon can kill a single bird.

Over the last 40 years, volunteers with Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup^® (ICC) have picked up more than 1.8 million balloons littering coastlines worldwide. That’s why Ocean Conservancy has advocated for laws to ban the intentional release of balloons, including the recent balloon release ban that passed in Florida in 2024.

Plastic bags

Who thought the spookiest part of trick-or-treating could be the plastic bag holding the candy? Well, to a sea turtle, it would be. Sea turtles have been known to eat plastic bags, which they mistake for jellyfish, one of their favorite foods. Americans are estimated to use 100 billion plastic grocery bags each year. That means that if it took you two minutes to read this far into the blog, there have been 400,000 plastic bags used in the United States alone.

The solution to prevent plastic bag pollution is simple: We need to use fewer plastic bags in the first place. In June 2025, a peer-reviewed study showed that plastic bag bans lead to a 25% to 47% reduction of plastic bags in the environment. So, to help protect sea turtles from more plastic bags lurking in their homes, remember to use a reusable bag instead of a plastic one, whether trick-or-treating or at the grocery store.

Microplastics

In horror movies such as “The Invisible Man” and “Blair Witch Project,” sometimes the most terrifying threats are those that you don’t readily see. Microplastics, defined as pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters (roughly the size of the eraser on a pencil) are a nearly invisible threat lurking in the ocean. Research shows that 60% of fish studied globally contained microplastics. Microplastics are also ingested by seabirds and mammals. Blue whales—the largest living marine animal—consume up to 10 million pieces of microplastics per day. When animals eat microplastics, studies show they can have negative health outcomes, including reduced food consumption, impaired growth and damage to their DNA.

Currently, Ocean Conservancy is advocating to reduce microplastic pollution at the local, federal and international levels, from the U.N. Plastics Treaty to laws at the state level to require filters on washing machines—a major source of microplastic pollution.

How you can help

While ocean plastic pollution can be scary, there are many ways to take action to prevent it. For example, you can opt for reusable cups or bags and buy in bulk to use less plastic. You can also join or host a cleanup at a local park or beach using Ocean Conservancy’s app Clean Swell^® where you can log what you find and help contribute to citizen science. And finally, join Ocean Conservancy in calling on Congress to tackle plastic pollution during spooky season and beyond—adding your name takes less than two minutes. The ocean and all its creatures are counting on you.