ORCA s Whale Education Month Lesson Pack 2: Marine Litter

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ORCA s Whale Education Month Lesson Pack 2: Marine Litter Photo Credit: Colin Kilpatrick Learn more about one of the biggest threats facing our wildlife today marine litter.

1 ORCA s Whale Education Month Lesson Pack 2: Marine Litter Photo Credit: Colin Kilpatrick Learn more about one of the biggest threats facing our wildlife today marine litter. Your students will investigate this huge threat through the ORCA Whale Education Month materials, games and activities, and what they can do to help. Registered Charity Number:

2 ORCA s Whale Education Month Marine Litter 2 How does marine litter harm wildlife? Welcome! This teacher s pack aims to educate and inspire students around the UK about the wonderful world of whales, dolphins and porpoises, and the threats that they face. Included in this pack are all the resources needed to deliver a fun, scientific class about the threat of marine litter to marine wildlife, with the hope of raising awareness of the importance of conservation. ORCA s Whale Education Month is running from the 1 st 31 st October 2018, to coincide with World Animal Day on the 4 th October. About ORCA: ORCA are a UK based whale and dolphin conservation charity, dedicated to the protection of whales, dolphins and porpoises (collectively known as cetaceans) and their habitats in UK & European waters. We and our volunteers help protect these inspirational animals in a number of ways; by educating the general public through our Your Seas programmes onshore and our Wildlife Officer programmes offshore, through our Marine Mammal Surveyor Training Courses across the country, and, once trained, through our volunteer surveyors working on ferry and cruise ship routes monitoring vulnerable whale and dolphin populations. We freely share our data with governments and other research institutions. Our work is all about creating safer places for whales and dolphins, ultimately promoting the health of the wider marine ecosystem. ORCA provides whale and dolphin workshops for schools, as part of the Your Seas educational programme. Being based in Portsmouth, there is never enough time to visit as many schools as we d like. This teacher s pack will provide the same engaging presentation and educational activities to students, whilst allowing teachers to be trained and able to deliver the content themselves. For more information, please visit our website We believe that it s extremely important for children to learn about the fascinating wildlife in our oceans and we believe that those who are taught about the negative impacts of litter on our environment at an early age are more likely to have a responsible attitude towards this, and other environmental issues, when they re older. Through these presentations, games and activities, children will learn about why marine litter is so harmful to wildlife and what they can do in their everyday lives (no matter how big or small) to help minimise this threat. There are three lesson packs; 1. Marine Litter What is marine litter? 2. Marine Litter How does marine litter harm wildlife? 3. Marine Litter What can I do to help? The below information is for the Marine Litter Pack 2 How does marine litter harm wildlife? Keep in touch! We hope you enjoy taking part in ORCA s Whale Education Month, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us; info@orcaweb.org.uk, , ORCA, Brittany Centre, Wharf Road, Portsmouth, PO2 8RU If you or your school uses social media, the hashtag is #WhaleEducationMonth and our Twitter handle 2

3 ORCA s Whale Education Month There are a wide range of different materials, activities and games provided for ORCA s Whale Education Month. How does the pack work? We have provided a PowerPoint presentation about marine litter for you to deliver to your class. Notes for the presentation are below. Integrated into the presentation are slides with suggested activities. Please note that this lesson follows on from Lesson 1 What is Marine Litter? Once you have delivered the presentation and activities, you can print off the certificate to proudly display in your classroom! Contents: Activity Page Number Teacher s notes for the PowerPoint Presentation: Marine Litter 4 3

4 Teacher s Notes: Presentation 2 How does marine litter harm wildlife? Please note that this presentation follows on from Lesson 1 - What is marine litter? 1 Introduction: Today, we will be learning about some of the dangers that whales, dolphins, and other marine wildlife faces in the ocean. This presentation has been provided by ORCA, who are a UK-based whale and dolphin conservation charity. The charity s aim is to have oceans alive with whales and dolphins! 2 So why it is a big problem that all of this litter is going into the sea? Ask the class: How does the litter in the sea harm whales, dolphins and other wildlife? There are two main impacts that this litter has on our marine wildlife. - Ingestion Whales, dolphins, porpoises, turtles, seabirds, fish and sharks all mistake plastic for food. They eat the plastic litter thinking it s food and this fills up their stomach. However, as plastic is a manmade material, it does not digest in the animal s stomach, so this litter stays in their stomach and does not pass through their body. Feeling full up, the animal does not feed and eventually starves to death (as the plastic in their stomach is not giving them any nutrients). 3 A good example of this is that turtles often eat plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish (their favourite food). As well as choking on the plastic bags, the turtle s stomach and intestines get so full with plastic bags that it is unable to feed anymore. 4 But also - Entanglement Large nets are spread out across our oceans and are often left for hours/days before being collected back in. Fishing nets are hard for an animal to see (and they are so thin that they are not picked up by a dolphin s echolocation), so animals accidentally get caught in the nets. The nets can cause fatal wounds to animals as they try to struggle free from the net, but whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals and turtles, who all breath air, when caught into a net cannot get up to the surface to breathe, so they drown. Sharks also drown as they need water moving through their gills to extract the oxygen from the water (they cannot breathe when stuck in a net and are staying still). 5 We will look at ingestion first. Ask the class: Where do you think this rubbish was found? Answer: Inside a killer whale (or orca s) stomach [click to reveal what items were found inside stomach] 6 In Norway in 2017, this Cuvier s beaked whale washed up on the shore. [click to reveal] It had over 30 plastic bags in its stomach. Cuvier s beaked whales feed on squid you can imagine how similar a plastic bag looks to a squid floating in the water. 4

5 7 But it s not just whales and dolphins. Seabirds also pick up plastic that they think is food. This is an albatross chick. [click to reveal what items were found inside stomach] Other examples include: Minke whales in Scotland have been photographed entangled in plastic strapping, humpback whales have stranded in Canada wrapped in plastic line and, in 2012, a young sperm whale was found dead, floating off the coast of Greece. It was discovered that its stomach was full of 100 plastic bags. 8 And here are some examples of entanglement. - Humpback whale with fishing line caught around tail; imagine the huge weight of this line, which could make it hard for the humpback whale to swim fast enough to catch food, or swim at all. - Sea lion with fishing net caught around neck; look at how painful this looks as the net cuts into the sea lion s neck - Gannet with rope stuck in beak; this gannet might find feeding hard with this fishing line stuck in its beak - Sea turtle stuck in fishing nets; this turtle had been strangled by the fishing nets 9 It s a huge problem. It s estimated that One million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles die every year after becoming trapped by plastic or mistakenly eating it as food. Scientists have estimated that by the year 2050 (in our lifetime), that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish (by weight). 10 As we already know, plastic NEVER goes away. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. But how long does it take to break down? Activity 4: [takes approximately 5 minutes] This activity will help students understand how long these items take to decompose and the difference between man-made and natural objects. Students can guess if they think the item takes longer/shorter or higher/lower than the previous item. 11 Ask the class: How long does it take for a plastic bag to break down? [click to reveal answer] 50 years!!! 12 Ask the class: How long does it take for a paper bag to break down? Is it higher or lower than a plastic bag? [click to reveal answer] LOWER at only 1 month. 5

6 This shows how it s a good thing to use a paper bag instead of a plastic bag. Paper is made out of a natural material (trees!), so it completely decomposes and completely disappears. 13 Ask the class: How long does it take for a plastic bottle to break down? Is it higher or lower than a paper bag? [click to reveal answer] HIGHER at a shocking 450 years!!! Ask the class: How long does it take you to drink a bottle of pop? The class might answer a few minutes or even less! Get the class to think about how something we only use for seconds stays in the environment for a very, very long time!! Advanced activity: Students could work out how old they would be if they used a plastic bottle today and what year it would be by the time the crisp packet had broken down. 14 Ask the class: How long does it take for an apple to break down? Is it higher or lower than a plastic bottle? [click to reveal answer] LOWER at only 2 months as an apple is a natural material. 15 Ask the class: How long does it take for a can to break down? Is it higher or lower than an apple core? [click to reveal answer] HIGHER at 200 years. The great thing is that it s so easy to recycle cans! So we must always make sure cans go into the recycling. 16 Ask the class: How long does it take for a plastic straw to break down? Is it higher or lower than a can? [click to reveal answer] THE SAME at 200 years. 17 Ask the class: How long does it take for a banana skin to break down? Is it higher or lower than a plastic straw? [click to reveal answer] LOWER at only 10 days as a banana is a natural material. 18 Ask the class: How long does it take for a crisp packet to break down? Is it higher or lower than a banana skin? [click to reveal answer] HIGHER at an astonishing 75 years! Ask the class: How long does it take you to eat a packet of crisps? The class might answer a minute or even less! Get the class to think about how something we only use for seconds stays in the environment a very very long time!! Advanced activity: Students could work out how old they would be if they used a crisp packet today and what year it would be by the time the crisp packet had broken down. 6

7 19 Ask the class: How long does it take for a fishing net to break down? Is it higher or lower than a crisp packet? [click to reveal answer] HIGHER at over 600 years!!! 20 What happens to plastic if it doesn t go away? It simply stays in our environment, getting smaller and smaller as they get washed around in the ocean. Plastic marine litter can come in all shapes and sizes, but those that are less than 5mm in length (or about the size of a sesame seed) are called micro plastics. These are just as harmful as larger pieces of plastic - We know that large animals such as whales, dolphins, turtles can eat large items, but when these items break down into smaller pieces, smaller animals can eat them, such as small fish and even plankton and they enter into the food chain. Baleen whales [see Lesson 1 Whales] engulf large amounts of water to feed, so they are unable to filter out what they eat. There will be millions of small pieces of small micro plastics in each mouthful, which they then swallow. Plastic also gets into the fish that WE eat. Advanced: When this plastic breaks down, it also releases harmful chemicals into the water and into the animal s stomachs which is very harmful to the animals and can lead to many different diseases. 21 We recommend viewing these videos in class, to really show the impact of marine litter in the world. (Please note that these videos are not affiliated with ORCA and we recommend the teacher s watching these videos first before showing to the class) 24 Thank you for taking part! Please follow on to Lesson 3 to learn about how the students can help stop litter getting into the sea. 7

8 Thank you for taking part in ORCA s Whale Education Month! If your school would like to fundraise or donate to help us continue our vital research and education work, please visit our website Thank you for your support. 8

Marine predators and prey

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