How Orlando Communities are Tackling Plastic Pollution

The city of Orlando is known above all else for its world-class amusement parks. In fact, hundreds of thousands of people visit the city every year from all across the globe. They might never step foot on one of Florida’s famous beaches. But in the Sunshine State, where the ocean is never more than 60 miles away, all water is connected—and what happens on land has downstream impacts on the coasts. Street litter can travel through canals and streams and out into the ocean.

In fact, Ocean Conservancy conducted a study with University of Georgia’s Circularity Informatics Lab to investigate where waste comes from, how it moves through a community, and where it ends up. The assessment found that plastic fragments, tobacco products and food-related plastic packaging are among the area’s most common litter items, while plastic bags are the largest source of recycling-bin contamination. The assessment also found that Orlando uses more plastic-foam takeout packaging than other Florida cities studied, highlighting opportunities to reduce waste before it reaches streets, waterways and the ocean.

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Working together

Along the way, plastic pollution can harm fish, birds and manatees. Even small amounts of ingested plastic can have devastating consequences. Concerned residents of Orlando are tired of picking up litter and worried about the impacts of plastics on wildlife, the environment and human health. Now, they are working together to reduce the amount of waste the community generates. In 2025, Ocean Conservancy worked with Florida Sea Grant and IDEAS For Us to host a series of workshops focused on identifying opportunities to reduce plastic waste throughout the city—as as part of Ocean Conservancy’s broader Plastic Free Cities work in the state. The workshops highlighted schools and large-scale venues as two categories ripe with opportunity to reduce waste and raise awareness about plastic pollution, among both residents and visitors to the region. In the final workshop, key stakeholders developed a plan to begin a coordinated coalition to take action against plastic pollution, starting with these categories.

Zero Waste Orlando

In 2026, Zero Waste Orlando was formed by the same stakeholders who participated in the workshops, with Orlando-based staff at Keep Orlando Beautiful leading the coalition and Ocean Conservancy facilitating its work. The coalition aims to reduce waste through behavior change and local policy. By bringing together business owners, policy experts, schoolteachers and long-term residents, the coalition draws on local knowledge and diverse expertise to identify practical solutions. This hyper-local model has demonstrated success elsewhere in Florida, including through the Zero Waste Miami coalition, and creates opportunities for collaboration across sectors.

Zero Waste Orlando is already taking steps to turn its goals into action. Members have formed subcommittees focused on reducing waste in schools and improving local policies relating to waste, with immediate plans to increase composting literacy in elementary schools this academic year. These efforts offer a starting point for helping students understand what happens to waste and how everyday choices can reduce the amount sent to landfills. The coalition also has opportunities to address waste challenges identified in the assessment, from finding alternatives to single-use food containers to improving recycling education and advocating for plastic-reduction policies. As members develop their strategy, these findings can help guide their priorities.

While Zero Waste Orlando has only just begun, it provides a platform for passionate residents to coordinate their efforts and work together to build a cleaner, healthier, plastic-free Orlando. If you are local and want to join the coalition, email Florida@oceanconservancy.org. To find and join a plastic-reduction coalition in your region, you can use the Story of Stuff’s “Reuse Changemaker Map.”

Tackle Plastic Pollution

Whether or not you are local to Orlanda or Florida, you can take action to tackle plastic pollution from right where you are. Add your name and call on Congress to pass the Rewarding Efforts to Decrease Unrecycled Contaminants in Ecosystems (REDUCE) Act now.

TAKE ACTION

The post How Orlando Communities are Tackling Plastic Pollution appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Celebrating 41 Years of the International Coastal Cleanup®

This fall, Ocean Conservancy is celebrating its 41st annual International Coastal Cleanup^® (ICC), once again bringing together volunteers to protect the beaches and waterways we all love. Ocean Conservancy recently hosted flagship events in Long Beach and Washington, D.C. that celebrated this global movement close to home.

Over the past four decades, nearly 20 million volunteers have rolled up their sleeves to remove more than 405 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterways around the world. And their impact extends far beyond what they collect. ICC volunteers have documented nearly 440 million individual items, creating the world’s largest marine debris database and providing invaluable information that helps Ocean Conservancy and others better understand—and tackle—ocean plastic pollution.

This year’s celebration continued that incredible legacy. At Alamitos Beach in Southern California, more than 150 volunteers gathered on September 19 and removed 1,109 pounds of trash, alongside members of Team USA Artistic Swimming and Olympic and Paralympic athletes. In Washington, D.C., 439 volunteers gathered on September 26 to remove 2,182 pounds of trash from Anacostia Park along the Anacostia River.

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“I am so grateful to all of the volunteers who came out today for our ocean—and every volunteer who has made the last 41 years of impact possible,” said Ocean Conservancy’s Senior Director of Conservation Cleanups, Allison Schutes. “Every piece of plastic collected helps protect marine animals and habitats and contributes to research and advocacy.”

And the impact doesn’t stop when the cleanup ends. During International Coastal Cleanup events, volunteers do more than remove trash: They document what they find, helping build a clearer picture of the plastic pollution threatening our waterways and wildlife. Through the Clean Swell^® app or paper data sheets, ICC volunteers contribute to Ocean Conservancy’s online, open-access database, the world’s largest repository of marine debris data. These records help scientists, conservation groups and governments understand pollution trends and identify solutions.

That data can also drive meaningful policy change. ICC data were recently used in a peer-reviewed study showing that plastic bag bans lead to reduced plastic bag pollution. The data have also helped advance policies ranging from California’s SB 54 to Florida’s balloon release ban and the federal Farewell to Foam Act. From a neighborhood cleanup to statewide action, every piece of documented trash helps build the evidence needed to tackle plastic pollution at its source.

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Want to get involved?

Whether you join a local cleanup, record the trash you find using the Clean Swell app, or take action to reduce plastic pollution, you can be part of this incredible collective effort to protect our ocean. Here are a few ways to make an impact:

• Find a cleanup near you.
• Download our Clean Swell app to easily record the trash you collect.
• Take action to reduce plastic pollution.
• Explore our Wildlife Impact Calculator to estimate the potential benefits of your cleanup for marine wildlife.
• Donate today to Ocean Conservancy to help us fight plastic pollution for years to come!

The post Celebrating 41 Years of the International Coastal Cleanup® appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Could You Really Be Swallowed by a Whale?

For generations, stories of people being swallowed by enormous sea creatures have painted awe-inspiring tales of human survival and perseverance. From the biblical account of Jonah to the legendary battle of Hercules and Cetus to the timeless story of Pinocchio, these legendary tales have captivated people since time immemorial.

But all these stories raise the question: Could someone really be swallowed by a whale? With the premiere of the film Whalefall on October 16, 2026, you may find yourself in conversations about this very situation. Based on the bestselling 2023 thriller authored by Daniel Kraus, the film tells the story of a scuba diver who is accidentally gobbled up by a sperm whale while searching for the remains of his late father. With only an hour of oxygen left in his tank, the diver must fight to escape the whale’s gut before time runs out.

The answer to whether it’s anatomically possible for a whale to swallow a person is actually a bit more complicated than you might think.

First, let’s start with what’s not possible. There are about 90 whale species known to science today, and they are split into two different groups: toothed whales, such as sperm whales, and baleen whales, such as humpback whales and blue whales. Instead of teeth, baleen whales have massive rows of specially designed bristles that act as filters. When feeding, these whales take big gulps of water, filtering through massive amounts of tiny krill and plankton. This is why baleen whales are known as filter feeders.

Because baleen whales eat such small organisms in large amounts, they don’t physically require much space to swallow their food. The opening in their throat that leads to their esophagus is shockingly small—it’s only about the size of a grapefruit! It’s probably obvious by now, but scientifically, it is entirely impossible for a baleen whale to swallow a person. While a few news stories have recounted oceangoers like kayakers accidentally ending up in or around the mouths of humpback whales, they’ve been spit out or released within seconds. If you were a whale, this would feel like trying to eat a handful of M&Ms and accidentally realizing an entire rotisserie chicken was in your mouth!

Toothed whale anatomy, however, is where this answer gets a bit more nuanced. Toothed cetaceans eat creatures like fish, sharks and squid. Because toothed whales need to chew their food, their digestive anatomy varies from that of their baleen counterparts, and they have notably larger gullets.

However, even amidst the more than 70 known species of toothed whales, only one species is anatomically capable of swallowing a person whole: the sperm whale.

Sperm whales are massive creatures and can grow to be up to 60 feet long. Because of their size, their prey tend to be on the larger side, too. A sperm whale’s esophagus isn’t particularly huge, but it has the elasticity to stretch to fit large prey such as giant squid, which can grow to be more than 20 feet long (not including their appendages). So, if a sperm whale can swallow a giant squid … could they potentially swallow a human?

Technically yes, but it’s so highly improbable that it’s nearly inconceivable. First, the likelihood that a human encounters a sperm whale is negligible on its own. Unlike whale species like humpbacks, sperm whales prefer to hang out in the deep water columns and underwater canyons of the open ocean, often diving down to close to 10,000 feet in search of food. So a person’s chances of seeing a sperm whale at any point in their life are actually very, very small.

Even if a sperm whale did somehow manage to swallow a person, the circumstances would likely not be what you’d expect. Project CETI whale biologist Shane Gero told Popular Science that it’s not necessarily impossible, but highly unlikely, and would have to involve the “biggest sperm whale ever” to be feasible. Even if it did happen, Gero noted that the initial rush of water or even the whale trying to “cough” to expel the person would likely be enough impact to kill a person before an actual digestive process could.

To date, there is no documented case of a whale actually swallowing a person. The only animal on Earth known to have successfully swallowed a person whole is the longest snake species in the world: the reticulated python.

So, while the thriller Whalefall may be deeply unsettling to watch, you can rest easy knowing just how unlikely—if not impossible—this situation actually is. You need not be afraid of sperm whales … however, if you were a sperm whale, you might be afraid of humans!

These marine mammals are regularly threatened by dangers like vessel strikes, noise pollution and entanglement in lost or discarded fishing gear, otherwise known as “ghost gear”. They are a protected species under the Endangered Species Act, and we should see them not as a threat, but as a captivating species worth protecting. Help Ocean Conservancy protect animals like sperm whales today by taking action in support of the Endangered Species Act.

The post Could You Really Be Swallowed by a Whale? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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Could You Really Be Swallowed by a Whale?

For generations, stories of people being swallowed by enormous sea creatures have painted awe-inspiring tales of human survival and perseverance. From the biblical account of Jonah to the legendary battle of Hercules and Cetus to the timeless story of Pinocchio, these legendary tales have captivated people since time immemorial.

But all these stories raise the question: Could someone really be swallowed by a whale? With the premiere of the film Whalefall on October 16, 2026, you may find yourself in conversations about this very situation. Based on the bestselling 2023 thriller authored by Daniel Kraus, the film tells the story of a scuba diver who is accidentally gobbled up by a sperm whale while searching for the remains of his late father. With only an hour of oxygen left in his tank, the diver must fight to escape the whale’s gut before time runs out.

The answer to whether it’s anatomically possible for a whale to swallow a person is actually a bit more complicated than you might think.

First, let’s start with what’s not possible. There are about 90 whale species known to science today, and they are split into two different groups: toothed whales, such as sperm whales, and baleen whales, such as humpback whales and blue whales. Instead of teeth, baleen whales have massive rows of specially designed bristles that act as filters. When feeding, these whales take big gulps of water, filtering through massive amounts of tiny krill and plankton. This is why baleen whales are known as filter feeders.

Because baleen whales eat such small organisms in large amounts, they don’t physically require much space to swallow their food. The opening in their throat that leads to their esophagus is shockingly small—it’s only about the size of a grapefruit! It’s probably obvious by now, but scientifically, it is entirely impossible for a baleen whale to swallow a person. While a few news stories have recounted oceangoers like kayakers accidentally ending up in or around the mouths of humpback whales, they’ve been spit out or released within seconds. If you were a whale, this would feel like trying to eat a handful of M&Ms and accidentally realizing an entire rotisserie chicken was in your mouth!

Toothed whale anatomy, however, is where this answer gets a bit more nuanced. Toothed cetaceans eat creatures like fish, sharks and squid. Because toothed whales need to chew their food, their digestive anatomy varies from that of their baleen counterparts, and they have notably larger gullets.

However, even amidst the more than 70 known species of toothed whales, only one species is anatomically capable of swallowing a person whole: the sperm whale.

Sperm whales are massive creatures and can grow to be up to 60 feet long. Because of their size, their prey tend to be on the larger side, too. A sperm whale’s esophagus isn’t particularly huge, but it has the elasticity to stretch to fit large prey such as giant squid, which can grow to be more than 20 feet long (not including their appendages). So, if a sperm whale can swallow a giant squid … could they potentially swallow a human?

Technically yes, but it’s so highly improbable that it’s nearly inconceivable. First, the likelihood that a human encounters a sperm whale is negligible on its own. Unlike whale species like humpbacks, sperm whales prefer to hang out in the deep water columns and underwater canyons of the open ocean, often diving down to close to 10,000 feet in search of food. So a person’s chances of seeing a sperm whale at any point in their life are actually very, very small.

Even if a sperm whale did somehow manage to swallow a person, the circumstances would likely not be what you’d expect. Project CETI whale biologist Shane Gero told Popular Science that it’s not necessarily impossible, but highly unlikely, and would have to involve the “biggest sperm whale ever” to be feasible. Even if it did happen, Gero noted that the initial rush of water or even the whale trying to “cough” to expel the person would likely be enough impact to kill a person before an actual digestive process could.

To date, there is no documented case of a whale actually swallowing a person. The only animal on Earth known to have successfully swallowed a person whole is the longest snake species in the world: the reticulated python.

So, while the thriller Whalefall may be deeply unsettling to watch, you can rest easy knowing just how unlikely—if not impossible—this situation actually is. You need not be afraid of sperm whales … however, if you were a sperm whale, you might be afraid of humans!

These marine mammals are regularly threatened by dangers like vessel strikes, noise pollution and entanglement in lost or discarded fishing gear, otherwise known as “ghost gear”. They are a protected species under the Endangered Species Act, and we should see them not as a threat, but as a captivating species worth protecting. Help Ocean Conservancy protect animals like sperm whales today by taking action in support of the Endangered Species Act.

The post Could You Really Be Swallowed by a Whale? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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What Can We Learn From 50 Years of Fishery Management?

United States ocean waters are home to diverse species of fish that feed families, anchor economies and draw millions of recreational anglers to the coasts year after year. Our fisheries support vibrant coastal communities and Indigenous cultures, while also sustaining a vast web of marine life, from the tiniest plankton to dolphins, sea turtles and whales.

Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA)

But fish populations are not inexhaustible. Overfishing has historically driven iconic fish populations like cod, red snapper and rockfish into serious decline or collapse. This is why in 1976, when faced with rapidly disappearing fish stocks that had once been abundant, Congress, scientists and fishermen worked together to establish a management system that would support fishing for the long term. This effort became the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, or MSA.

Fifty years have passed since the MSA was enacted into law, becoming the primary law governing the management of fisheries in U.S. federal ocean waters. Over time, through reauthorization and changes to implementation, the law has evolved to support a management system built on science and adapted to the distinct needs of each fishery and region. The law’s central goal is to prevent overfishing while achieving levels of fishing that provide the greatest overall benefit to the nation. This means managing fishing to keep fish populations healthy, abundant and productive for the long term.

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What’s changed in the last 50 years

However, so much has changed for the ocean in the last 50 years, and new challenges are developing that will push our fisheries to their limits.

1. Failure to rebuild many overfished stocks: Overfishing, climate change and unsuccessful management approaches have left many fish stocks at low population sizes.
2. High demand from recreational fisheries: Despite the small-scale impact of each individual angler, millions of fishing trips and the many fish tossed overboard to die are adding up to big problems for our fish stocks.
3. Persistent bycatch: Progress has stalled on minimizing the unintentional catch of non-target fish and other wildlife, putting threatened species at risk and jeopardizing the income of small communities and the food security of Indigenous fishers.
4. Lack of investment in science, data and traditional knowledge: Aging systems, outmoded approaches and lack of scientific capacity are eroding our science-based management system, and new opportunities are being missed to upgrade our approaches and integrate traditional knowledge.
5. Habitat loss and ecosystem degradation: Coastal development, industrial activity, climate change and current fishing habits threaten fish habitats and marine ecosystems.
6. Changing ocean conditions and more frequent disasters: Fisheries management is not adapting fast enough as climate change causes fish stocks to shift their ranges and increases their vulnerability to stress, disease and collapse.
7. Economic vulnerability of fishing communities: Fishing-dependent communities face uncertain futures, cheap foreign imports and food insecurity.
8. Deregulation and poor governance: Conservation measures that have brought species back from the brink are being rolled back.

It’s clear that business as usual is not enough to guarantee abundant fish populations that can support coastal communities and fisheries. The future of fishing—and the health of our ocean—for the next five decades depends on tackling the challenges we face today.

The good news is that solutions are readily available. Ocean Conservancy experts have identified the most pressing problems and promising solutions to right this ship and make sure that everyone can fish for generations to come. With this information, governmental leaders can create smart policy, fishermen can consider new techniques, and we can all commit to valuing the protections that ensure there are plenty of fish, both in the sea and on our plates.  

Drifting Off Course

Ocean Conservancy’s report, Drifting Off Course: Challenges in U.S. Fisheries Management and Charting the Path Forward, highlights several important issues that face fisheries and offers solutions to help address them.

Read the Report

The post What Can We Learn From 50 Years of Fishery Management? appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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How Beluga Whales Ended Up in Canada’s Rivers

If you spend some time on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, you just might catch a flash of white beneath the surface. A whale. A beluga whale.

You don’t typically expect to find whales in a river, but, sure enough, whales swim here, year-round, in a river hundreds of miles from the open ocean. Small, ivory-colored beluga navigate the same freshwater corridors as cargo ships and kayaks. The story of Arctic whales making a home in a Canadian river doesn’t begin with water but with ice.

A sea that no longer exists

About 15,000 years ago, the enormous Wisconsin glacier that had covered much of North America began its slow retreat. As it melted, it left behind a profound geographical mark. The glacier’s weight compressed the land it sat on for millennia, inviting seawater from the Atlantic to flood the resulting low basin. A vast inland sea, the Champlain, stretched from the Atlantic coast westward toward the Great Lakes and what is now New York.

Whales, walruses, narwhals, humpbacks and seals all roamed in what would become the St. Lawrence lowlands. Their fossils have been found between Quebec City and the Ottawa Valley. Researchers have found the remains of porpoises, humpback whales, fin whales, bowhead whales, and multiple seal and walrus species buried under the sediment of what are now farms, fields and suburban lots. In 2001, the Université du Québec à Montréal recovered a beluga fossil more than 10,000 years old.

When the ice age ended, the land rebounded and the Champlain Sea drained. The St. Lawrence River remained, containing a population of belugas that stayed. As the glacier withdrew and dry land emerged, beluga whales took up residence in the estuary that formed. The population that stayed became genetically isolated from all other beluga groups in northern Canada, Russia and Alaska. 

The St. Lawrence River is the only home their lineage has known for longer than recorded human history. Over thousands of years, they adapted. Their behaviors are in tune with the river’s rhythms. Their seasonal patterns are distinct from their Arctic counterparts. Having been present in the St. Lawrence River for 10,000 years, belugas have adapted to an extreme and changing environment. They play a role in their ecosystems. For many Indigenous communities, they have served as a subsistence resource as well as a source of food security and culture.

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A population under pressure

The St. Lawrence belugas are now listed as endangered. There were an estimated 10,000 whales at the turn of the 20th century, but now roughly 1,800 belugas remain. Recent surveys suggest the number may be closer to 900. The population was severely reduced by hunting, which continued until 1979. High contaminant loads, vessel traffic and industrialization of the surrounding watershed have prevented recovery even after hunting was restricted.

And now climate change is compounding the pressure from a direction these whales have never faced before: A warming Arctic is pushing new species into old territories. As climate change continues to warm the Arctic and reduce sea ice, orcas have been spotted in beluga whale habitats, introducing a major predator of all three Arctic whale species. Less ice means less refuge. More open water means more ship traffic, more noise and more disruption of the acoustic communication belugas depend on to feed and reproduce.

Every year around the third week of September, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center announce the Arctic sea ice minimum, the point at which summer melt has reached its furthest extent before winter refreezing begins. The last 19 September extents, from 2007 to 2025, represent the 19 lowest on record. The trend line, measured across nearly five decades of satellite data, moves in only one direction.

For the St. Lawrence belugas, this number is extremely consequential. The glacier that created the Champlain Sea and stranded their ancestors in a river changed their world irrevocably. The warming that is now shrinking sea ice is doing the same thing, on a faster timeline than any glacier melt.

The St. Lawrence belugas aren’t the only beluga population in trouble. Cook Inlet belugas in Alaska are also endangered, and other Canadian populations are of serious conservation concern. Ocean Conservancy works to protect these distinct populations through support for ecosystems and biodiversity. Groups of belugas in places like the St. Lawrence River and the Arctic have been separated for such long periods that they highlight the importance of genetic diversity when it comes to climate resilience. Losing one species, like the St. Lawrence population, cannot simply be offset with lots of belugas in another part of our world. They represent thousands of years of history and adaptation.

The beluga in the St. Lawrence is a living record of what the ocean once was and a signal of what it is becoming. Our ocean shapes life in ways that travel further inland and last far longer than we expect.

Chart a New Course for Whales

The Whale CHARTS Act would reduce ship strikes by amending NOAA’s near-real-time monitoring and mitigation program for large cetaceans to improve our understanding of the location and extent of baleen and sperm whale migration routes and feeding, mating and calving grounds.

Take Action for Whales

The post How Beluga Whales Ended Up in Canada’s Rivers appeared first on Ocean Conservancy.

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