Posted on 11/07/2006 2:20:00 AM PST by Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit
WASHINGTON — Old toothbrushes, beach toys and used condoms are part of a vast vortex of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, threatening sea creatures that get tangled in it, eat it or ride on it, a new report says.
Because plastic doesn't break down the way organic material does, ocean currents and tides have carried it thousands of miles to an area between Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast, according to the study by the international environmental group Greenpeace.
This swirling vortex, which can grow to be about the size of Texas, is not far from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, designated as a protected U.S. national monument in June by President Bush.
The Greenpeace report, "Plastic Debris in the World's Oceans" said at least 267 species -- including seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales and fish -- are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of marine debris.
Some 80 percent of this debris comes from land and 20 percent from the oceans, the report said, with four main sources: tourism, sewage, fishing and waste from ships and boats.
The new report comes days after the journal Science projected that Earth's stocks of fish and seafood would collapse by 2048 if trends in overfishing and pollution continue.
Two weeks ago, the U.S. Institute of Medicine said the benefits of eating fish outweigh the risks of toxins detected in the animals.
STOMACHS FILLED WITH PLASTIC
Plastic pollution is a problem in all the world's oceans, the Greenpeace report said, but underlined the issue in the Pacific by sailing through the floating garbage dump and capturing images of wildlife interacting with plastic.
"It's not necessarily an area that's clearly defined; it's sort of a natural phenomenon ... wind and salt water break down the plastic," said Steve Smith, aboard the Greenpeace ship Esperanza.
The plastic trash, some in large pieces and others broken down to small but recognizable particles, is visible from the ship's deck, about 50 feet above the ocean surface, Smith said by telephone Friday. Inflatable boats are dispatched from the ship to collect samples.
"We've been been unfortunately finding a lot of stuff out here, floating by, which doesn't paint a very good picture, because some of it is from faraway places, has marine life like barnacles and other little creatures living on the plastic," Smith said.
By hitching rides on plastic debris, invasive species can be carried thousands of miles to interact with native creatures, Smith said. Plastic also poses a hazard to animals that mistake it for prey and eat it, he said.
"Plastics in the oceans act as a toxic sponge, soaking up a lot of the persistent pollutants out here," Smith said. "We've seen photos of albatrosses who eat this plastic ... Even though their stomachs are filled, they end up starving because there's no nutrients in there."
Discarded or lost fishing nets and traps can continue to catch fish when they are no longer in use, the report said.
The report said an international agreement known as MARPOL is aimed at ending the dumping of plastic debris at sea, but noted that since most debris originates on land, even total enforcement of this agreement would not eliminate the problem.
Greenpeace called for a global network of marine reserves, covering 40 percent of the world's oceans, and responsibility by coastal countries to cut down on "excessive consumption" and boost recycling.
No, it's real. See post 40.
See post 40. My searching also indicated that there are programs in coastal countries to pull fouled ghostnets on reefs and beaches.
I agree. I posted in a different thread about fisheries depletion that an international cooperative program is the only thing that would work successfully.
Tha's good, and the monofilament stuff does last a long ass time, just not on my reel, where it loses strength very quickly (2-3 months) and requires replacement.
However, As bad as a 300 meter drifting gillnet sounds, it sure doens't make up a significant portion of the ocean or it's fisheries. After a couple week, the net would become so fouled with organic matter (dead fish) that it would likely sink and no longer be much of a ouling hazard.
All of the issues referenced in this article serve as basis for control and embargo of use of the world's largest natural resource; given that sort of motive, I am suspicious of the authors' conclusions and objectivity.
41 years, 6 months and 12 days.
We didn't have that problem in the old days, glass bottles sink out of sight.
I don't care what you do with your cake, just don't tell me I can't eat mine.
Figures that a freaking German would use a phrase like this.
I don't like fish anyway.
Remove the plastic and we end up with immortal fish, I guess.
If the ocean can really get rid of plastics in 5-8 months we should throw all our plastic trash there.
Back to the lifeboat theory.
I think the problem is: there are a lot more out there than just one, and they catch and kill species with a lot less numbers than fish (such as sea turtles, which cruise the convergence zones for jellyfish, because that's where the jellyfish end up due to passive floating in the currents).
Well, I can agree with you there. I believe that if there IS such a thing as man-made global warming it's because the earth is supporting 6-7 billion people now when it was half that when I was a kid in the 60s.
How on earth did all that trash come to be in one area of the ocean?
It figures that it would take three days flying over an area the size of Texas to count and identify 2,000 objects.
I agree with you. A lot of the environmentalists' hype is just that, but not all of it. I think we need to pay more attention to what we are doing to the planet, whether we're liberal or conservative.
carolyn
Then all we would need is an honorable and trustworthy manager, right?
All of the noise is caused by the ongoing debate over who owns the sea; the U.N. thinks it should be theirs to run while every sovereign nation wants control over its outer banks and coastal zones.
How do you know which cake is yours?
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