Hard hitting plastic pollution video sees petition soar

2 May 2019, 10:20 | Updated: 2 May 2019, 10:21

Surfers Against Sewage have released a hard hitting film about plastic pollution.

The Cornish environmental charity have released the "creature" film, to show people the impact plastic pollution has on our sea creatures.

In the film, an unknown "creature" washes up on a beach in Cornwall, suffocated by plastic pollution.

It's part of their generation sea petition,  to get the government to make changes to protect our oceans and beaches. 

With 95% of the oceans unexplored, they're urging people to sign their petition and put pressure on parliament to save the oceans.

One sea bird or marine mammal dies every 30 seconds due to plastic pollution.

The charity wants to highlight the threat of plastic pollution to the many species that are yet to be uncovered, as well as those that are already known to be dying as a result of human actions. 

The petition hopes to see the government take decisive action before it’s too late and establish a powerful independent watchdog to protect the oceans and wider natural environment as part of an ambitious Environment Bill, while enforcing specific targets relating to plastic waste and carbon emissions for government and big business. 

Ben Hewitt, Director of Campaigns and Projects, Surfers Against Sewage, said “Every year new and unique ocean dwelling creatures are being discovered in the depths of the marine world. 

"Meanwhile, humankind is treating our sea as a ‘single-use ocean’ - filling it with plastic, changing it’s chemistry through carbon emissions and stripping it of all natural abundance. 

"We’ve built ‘Creature’ to represent the sea life that people are destroying without even being aware of it."

So far the #GenerationSea petition has had more than 13,000 signatures.