By 2050, there will be more pounds of plastic in the ocean than fish.

That’s according to a November 29, 2016 CNN article which explained that The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration  (NOAA) has removed 125 metric tons of debris from Midway Island since 1999.

Midway island is known as the Plastic Island. It stands directly in the middle of the Pacific Ocean between the United States and China. That area is known for being the largest garbage patch in the world.

There are five trillion pieces of plastic that float in the ocean today, and lot of it lands in the Midway Island. Everyday more plastic rolls onto the shores of this tiny island from cites that are no closer than 1,300 miles way. This debris includes shoes, umbrellas, bottles, bags, mannequin heads, toothbrushes, crates, chairs, nets, bottle caps, and other man-made refuse.

Some of the plastic that is brought back to the island is due to the birds that live on the island. When they hunt out in the ocean they eat plastic, mistaking it for food. They come back to the island and feed their chicks this plastic, causing the chicks to die. Once they chicks die, their boies decompose, but the plastic remains.

Plastics break down into micro-plastics, which fish and other sea life consume. The smaller the pieces of plastic, the more toxic they become, and the easier they are to eat. Micro-plastics kill thousands of fish each year, and now plastic is getting into human food, transferring from the ocean, to fish, and eventually to our dinner plates.