how do freshwater river fish adapt to strong currents

If you've spent as much time out on the open water as I have, you start noticing where all that junk actually comes from. It’s honestly heartbreaking to see how much trash ends up drifting way out in the middle of nowhere. Based on what we see out there, the Yangtze River in China is widely considered the biggest culprit. It flows through some incredibly densely populated industrial areas, so it's no wonder it dumps a massive amount of plastic waste into the East China Sea every single year.

It's not just the Yangtze, though. Rivers like the Pasig in the Philippines and a few others across Southeast Asia are major contributors too. When you’re steering a vessel, you realize that these large river systems act like conveyor belts for plastic pollution. Even if we try to clean up the oceans, the real problem is being fed by these major waterways that carry trash from inland cities directly out to the coast. It’s a mess that really needs more attention at the source rather than just trying to scoop it up once it reaches the deep blue.