Recently Captain Charles Moore, the person who discovered the Pacific Garbage Patch, came to San Diego to speak. Founder and key researcher of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF), Captain Moore told the story of how he and his research team traveled 10,000 miles in a period of 4 months and came across this soup of highly concentrated plastic debris. The Pacific Garbage Patch is located within one of the 5 ocean gyres; recent data has only been collected from the Pacific Gyre, but there are expeditions going out this year to explore the impact of plastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean. Because the Patch is located within a gyre, the vortex draws in debris and the pressure keeps it there – in Captain Moore’s words, it’s “like a toilet that never flushes”. Their nets drew in anything from 1/3 millimeters in diameter and up, and they found things such as toothbrushes, diapers, forks and of course, millions of bottle caps. Plastic is great because it is light, indissoluble, and can be shaped and used for a multitude of products. Yet it is this indestructible characteristic that is slowly killing our marine life and crowding our oceans. Large pieces of plastic can only become smaller pieces of plastic, and these small pieces photodegrade into plastic dust, which ultimately even zooplankton ingest. Zooplankton are tiny organisms floating around in the ocean, many which are not visible to the human eye. There are millions of them in the ocean, and they form the base of the aquatic food chain. The saddest statistic, though, is that although there are millions of zooplankton, there are 46 pounds of plastic for every one zooplankton.
Thousands of marine animals are dying each year. One interesting fact the researchers noticed was that fish and turtles were drawn to eating red and yellow colored plastic. Once an animal has consumed a piece of plastic, it thinks that it is full because its stomach is full; and in this way animals such as turtles and albatrosses cruelly starve to death because they are not receiving any nutrients. Many animals are found dead with stomachs crammed full of human-made products.
Furthermore, research links plastics with several diseases in humans, including endocrine dysfunction, diabetes, and hormone alteration. Most of us are aware of BPA toxicity but for those interested in doing more reading, these research papers detail the effects plastic has on human health.
Here are some pictures from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation website:
Water Sample from the Pacific Garbage Patch
Albatross
Albatross with a stomach full of plastic
This turtle got stuck in a plastic ring when it was a baby. Unfortunately it could not remove it and instead grew up deformed.
Kamilo Beach, on the southeast shore of Hawaii
Many of us enjoy the ocean to surf, sail, or just play in the water. Captain Moore stated, “Our plastic footprint is worse than our carbon footprint.” From these pictures, it definitely looks like we’re swimming in our own trash.
- Lauren
Tags: albatross, ocean, Pacific Garbage Patch, Plastic, turtle
March 9, 2010 at 10:41 am |
Great piece guys – I welcome the day when this detail forms a mandatory part of our children’s education system – we are what we consume and we’re creating our future consequences through our thoughtless actions today.
When we started our fight back in 2004 and developed our branded product into what has become the conscience of the bottled water industry (since 2006), we didn’t fully realise just how pervasive plastic is… We remain optimistic that a few good people can bring about change and blogs like yours will continue to spread the word so those with eyes and ears will eventually see, hear, understand and change their habits!
Keep it up.
Neil T
March 12, 2010 at 11:51 am |
Thanks Neil! We wholeheartedly agree with your thought that great individuals can bring about change.