“The unprecedented plastic waste tide plaguing our oceans and shores, can become as limited as our chosen relationship with plastics, which involves a dramatic behavioral change on our part…”
Captions and Photo: © SAF — Coastal Care
Excerpts;
Plastic trash is a growing threat to oceans around the planet, and research on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — plus similar messes in the Atlantic, Indian and Southern oceans — has drawn widespread public attention over the past decade. But since the Arctic Ocean is so remote and largely buffered by land, it has seemed safer from the plastic debris plaguing so many ocean gyres farther south.
According to a new study, however, the Arctic not only shares this global plastic problem, but serves as a “dead end” for hordes of marine debris drifting through the North Atlantic. Even though very little plastic waste is discarded within the Arctic itself, it’s still carried there — and then stranded — by ocean currents.
Read Full Article; MNN (04-24-2017)
Plastic Litter Taints the Sea Surface, Even in the Arctic; Science Daily (10-22-2015)
For the first time, researchers show that marine litter can even be found at the sea surface of Arctic waters. Though it remains unclear how the litter made it so far north, it is likely to pose new problems for local marine life, the authors report…
The Ocean Is Contaminated by Trillions More Pieces of Plastic Than Thought, IOP Science (12-08-2015)
This new study suggests there are 15 to 51 trillion micro plastic particles (those less than 200 millimeters in size) in the world’s oceans, weighing between 93 and 236,000 metric tons. This is about seven times more than scientists had previously estimated…
UN Declares War on Ocean Plastic, UNEP (02-23-2017)
Video captures moment plastic enters food chain, BBC News (03-11-2017)
A scientist has filmed the moment plastic microfibre is ingested by plankton, illustrating how the material is affecting life beneath the waves. The footage shows one way that plastic waste could be entering the marine and global food chain…
Biodegradable Plastics Are Not the Answer to Reducing Marine Litter, UN News Center (11-23-2015)
Widespread adoption of products labelled ‘biodegradable’ will not significantly decrease the volume of plastic entering the ocean or the physical and chemical risks that plastics pose to marine environment, concluded a UN report released today…
Plastic Pollution / When The Mermaids Cry: The Great Plastic Tide, Coastal Care ©-2009
Collecting plastic waste near coasts ‘is most effective clean-up method’, Guardian UK (01-19-2016)
To clean up ocean plastics, increase focus on coasts, Science Daily (01-19-2016)
The most efficient way to clean up ocean plastics and avoid harming ecosystems is to place plastic collectors near coasts, according to a new study…
