plastic pollution can severely affect all forms of marine life; indo-pacific humpback dolphins are specifically affected in an array of means. indo-pacific humpback dolphin (s"ousa chinensis") are chronically exposed to organic pollutants since they inhabit shallow coastal waters that are often impacted by anthropogenic activities. anthropogenic pollutants pose a risk to marine mammals that reside in coastal waters. discharge of organic pollutants into marine environments has been shown to decrease water quality resulting in loss of habitats and a significant reduction in the species richness (johnston and roberts, 2009). the loss of key pods have caused specie fragmentation, "also due to habitat loss," which inclines specie isolation; decrease connectivity resulting in population decline. this loss in population is what lead this species to be labeled as near threatened on the iucn red list of threatened species. the consumption of plastics have adverse effects in marine mammals such as disease susceptibility, reproductive and developmental toxicity. constant absorption of organic pollutants like plastic can be transferred into the dolphin’s tissues and organs through an ingestion pathway that is impacting megafauna, lower trophic levels and predators (not limited to indo-pacific) organ toxicity can lead to organ failure, loss of offsprings and milk toxicity. if the dolphin is not consuming plastic directly then it can have plastic pollutants ingested though biomagnification and bioaccumulation. bioaccumulation is defined as the uptake of chemicals from the environment through dietary intake, dermal absorption or respiratory transport in air or water. this is a huge factor is plastic toxicity consumption in this species due to them having long lifespans which makes them susceptible to chronic exposure. also, they contain a large quantity of blubber, "lipids", which can result in an excess of toxicity storage in their tissues.