Pollution is one of the primary ways in which we people have caused drastic modifications of wildlife habitat.

It was widely assumed that no matter how much trash and chemicals are dumped into the sea water or into the ocean, the effects would be negligible. There was even a catchphrase: "The solution to pollution is dilution."

Picture shared under Creative Commons Licenses, Photograph by Ed Kashi, http://ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/

The dumping of industrial, nuclear and other waste into oceans was legal until the early 1970's. Nowadays, many national laws, as well as international protocols, forbid dumping of harmful materials into the sea and ocean.

One of the most harmful materials which cause sea pollution is plastic. Its production increases all the time, since we all find it comfortable using them.

Picture shared under Creative Commons Licenses, http://marinebio.org/oceans/ocean-dumping/

Sadly, many of these single-use bags and bottle corks find their way to the sea, where they are often mistaken for food by sea turtles, dolphins, whales and sea birds.

Picture shared under Creative Commons Licenses, Photograph by Chris Jordan, http://alllies.org/blog/archives/7301#.V2NJ8rsrLcs

Plastic garbage can reach the sea even when it's far away from it:

Picture shared under Creative Commons Licenses, http://www.healthebay.org/

It seems that most of us, people, are still not aware of our responsibility to nature and the importance of keeping it clean:

In the following assignment you'll help us to investigate the number of plastic bags as a function of the location from your residence:

Please use google maps to measure 500 meter (1640 feet) path from your home and go for a short walk. Please take pictures or a short movie whenever you find a plastic bag and state the distance from your home. (You can use Waze or other nevigation application to know the distance).

Please edit your location in the map and upload your results:

1. The number of plastic bags you've seen in each location

2. The distance of each plastic bag from your home (in meters/ feet)

Thanks for providing the information!