Plastic in oceans reaches apocalyptic levels

Scientists estimate that there are currently more than 171 trillion bits of plastic floating around in the oceans.

Plastic harms fish and other marine life and takes hundreds of years to degrade into harmless substances.

According to research, there are now more plastics in the oceans than there were in 2005 (16 trillion pieces).

Nations ratified the historic UN High Seas Treaty this week, which aims to save 30% of the oceans.

A team of experts examined records going back to 1979 and incorporated current information gathered from expeditions that use nets to scour the seas to create this new estimate.