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Opinion: Plastic bag ban: A paper bag for Shamu

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Sea World San Diego has announced that it will stop putting visitors’ purchases in plastic bags. Starting in June, it will offer paper bags, or the option of buying a reusable bag, its step toward diminishing -- or at least not adding to -- the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a vast area of degraded plastic in the ocean about the size of Texas. It’s not good for sea life, and there’s another huge patch in the Atlantic.

Of course, that’s a drop in the ocean compared with the 120,000 tons a year of carry-out plastic bags that California generates. But if Sea World uses its new policy to educate visitors -- maybe with some print on those paper bags explaining the damage caused by the plastic variety -- we might see some new support for banning most carry-out plastic. That’s something the Legislature should have done last year.

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Now, if Sea World really wants to get serious about being kind to ocean life, how about ending its orca breeding program?

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-- Karin Klein

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