Marine plastic pollution
Known as ghost nets, these entangle fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, restricting movement, causing starvation, laceration, infection, and, in those that need to return to the surface to breathe, suffocation.
[18] The 10 largest emitters of oceanic plastic pollution worldwide are, from the most to the least, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh,[19] largely through the Yangtze, Indus, Yellow River, Hai, Nile, Ganges, Pearl River, Amur, Niger, and Mekong, and accounting for "90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world's oceans".
[64] A 1994 study of the seabed using trawl nets in the north-western Mediterranean around the coasts of Spain, France, and Italy reported mean concentrations of debris of 1,935 items per square kilometre.
[19] Most land-based plastic pollution enters the ocean from South, Southeast, and East Asia, with the largest emitters including China, Indonesia, Philippines, and India.
When these products are used, the microplastics go through the water filtration system and into the ocean, but because of their small size they are likely to escape capture by the preliminary treatment screens on wastewater plants.
The microplastics are such a concern because it is difficult to clean them up due to their size, so humans can try to avoid using these harmful plastics by purchasing products that use environmentally safe exfoliates.
[41] Upon reaching marine environments, due to their small size and low density, microplastics are transported over long distances via wind and surface ocean currents.
[6][97][98] The extent of microplastic pollution in the deep sea has yet to be fully determined, and as a result scientists are currently examining organisms and studying sediments to better understand this issue.
[103] Research performed by MBARI in 2013 off the west coast of North America and around Hawaii found that out of all the debris observed from 22 years of VARS database video footage, one-third of the items was plastic bags.
[104] A recent study that collected organisms and sediments in the Abyssopelagic Zone of the Western Pacific Ocean extracted materials from samples and discovered that poly(propylene-ethylene) copolymer (40.0%) and polyethylene terephthalate (27.5%) were the most commonly detected polymers.
Improved wastewater treatment and stormwater management in many poor nations would prevent part of the 1.5 million tonnes of microplastics from entering the marine ecosystems each year.
[125][126] A garbage patch is a gyre of marine debris particles caused by the effects of ocean currents and increasing plastic pollution by human populations.
These human-caused collections of plastic and other debris are responsible for ecosystem and environmental problems that affect marine life, contaminate oceans with toxic chemicals, and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
[128] The 10 largest emitters of oceanic plastic pollution worldwide are, from the most to the least, China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Egypt, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Bangladesh,[129] largely through the rivers Yangtze, Indus, Yellow, Hai, Nile, Ganges, Pearl, Amur, Niger, and the Mekong, and accounting for "90 percent of all the plastic that reaches the world's oceans".
[138] Concern among experts has grown since the 2000s that some organisms have adapted to live on[139] floating plastic debris, allowing them to disperse with ocean currents and thus potentially become invasive species in distant ecosystems.
[142] Research in 2014 in the waters around Australia[143] confirmed a wealth of such colonists, even on tiny flakes, and also found thriving ocean bacteria eating into the plastic to form pits and grooves.
Their finding is also congruent with the other major research undertaken[144] in 2014, which sought to answer the riddle of the overall lack of build up of floating plastic in the oceans, despite ongoing high levels of dumping.
The hydrophobic nature of plastic surfaces stimulates rapid formation of biofilms,[143] which support a wide range of metabolic activities, and drive succession of other micro- and macro-organisms.
[145] The garbage patches are one of several oceanic regions where researchers have studied the effects and impact of plastic photodegradation in the neustonic layer of water.
[159] Fishing gear such as nets, ropes, lines, and cages often get lost in the ocean and can travel large distances which has negatively impacted many marine animals such as coral.
Especially when evolutionary adaptions make it impossible for the likes of turtles to reject plastic bags, which resemble jellyfish when immersed in water, as they have a system in their throat to stop slippery foods from otherwise escaping.
[94][184][185] The ingestion of large amounts of plastic debris, such as fish nets and ropes, can lead to marine animal's deaths via gastric impaction.
[193] Plastics found in the stomachs of these fish were collected during Malaspina's circumnavigation, a research project that studies the impact of global change on the oceans.
[219] A study from 2019 indicates that the large amounts of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch could affect the behavior and distribution of some marine animals, as they can act as fish aggregating devices (FAD).
[18] Nanoplastics can penetrate the intestine tissue in aquatic creatures[220] and can end up in the human food chain by inhalation (breathing) or ingestion (eating), particularly through shellfish and crustaceans.
The main objective of this project is to make the ocean cleaning process commercially realistic in time, environmentally efficient and viable in general.
[246] Four aspects are important for an integrated approach to solve the problem of marine plastic pollution: harmonization of international laws (action example: develop a new global plastics treaty); coherence across national policies; coordination of international organizations (action example: identify a leading coordinating organization (e.g., UN Environment Programme (UNEP)); and science-policy interaction.
Their research led to them being able to collect useful and long term data about plastic in the Atlantic Ocean along with Charles Moore being able to discover the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
[252] In 2006, Ken Weiss published an article in the Los Angeles Times which was the first to make the public aware about the effects of the Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean.
[253] The Amsterdam-based Plastic Soup Foundation is an advocacy group which aims to raise awareness of the problem, educate people, and support the development of solutions.
