There's plenty of it...
When I walk along the beach, as I do most days, I take a bag, anticipating
I will find 'treasures' of some sort.
Often I fill my bag with rubbish - as we call it in New Zealand.
It's not hard to find, it's everywhere and my bag overflows.
My
picture today shows one bag of rubbish I picked up along
Tokerau Beach during half an hours walk.
I left lots behind because I couldn't carry
any more.
I could do this every day and still there would be more...
It's a global problem.
The worlds biggest garbage dump is a floating one!
The
'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' or trash vortex is the largest of five
major oceanic gyres.
It lies in a high pressure area between the US state of Hawaii and California - in the middle of
the North Pacific Subtropical
Gyre - a circular ocean current formed by the earth's wind patterns
and the forces created by the rotation of the planet. The centre is very calm and stable and the
circular motion draws the debris in and prevents it from escaping.
This particular North Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered by racing boat captain Charles Moore in 1997. He continues to promote awareness through his own
Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
There are various estimations on the size of the North Pacific Garbage Patch - as big
as the USA?
Twice the size of Texas... Whatever - it's huge...
It is 100 million tonnes of flotsam...
Covering 5 million square miles
A plastic soup...
It can be compared to a living entity...
Moving around like a big animal without a leash.
Held in place by oceanic currents.
About
1/5th of the junk - which includes everything from footballs and kayaks
to lego blocks and carrier bags - is thrown off ships and oil
platforms. The rest comes from the land.
(
from an article in the Independent)
Every year about 100 million tonnes of plastic is produced. Of this about 10% ends up in the sea...
For every square kilometer area of the ocean an estimated 13,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating in it... In the gyres there are 750,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer.
In
the Great Pacific trash vortex there is an estimated 6kg of plastic for
every 1kg of natural plankton, which along with other slow degrading
garbage, swirls slowly around like a clock choked with dead fish, marine
mammals and birds who get snared.
A lot of these plastics over a
long, long time break down into smalller and smaller particles until
they become small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms.
Some
of these long lasting plastic particles end up in the stomach of
marine birds and their young
including sea turtles and the Black-footed
Albatross.
Albatross Carcass
Albatross carcass full of plastic
Mother and chick
Another Albatross carcass - Photos from Algalita Marine Research
On a microscopic level the floating debris can absorb
organic pollutants.
When ingested some of these are mistaken by the
endocrin system as estradiol causing hormone disruption in the affected
animal/fish.
Also the toxic pieces of plastic are eaten by jellyfish which in turn are eaten by larger fish.
Many of these fish are eaten by humans resulting in their ingestion of these harmful toxic chemicals.
(from Wikipedia)
Some plastics in the Gyre will not break down in the lifetime of the grandchildren of the people who threw it away.
The
most polluted river in the world is the Citarum in Indonesia - a bank
to bank graveyard of debris where locals risk their lives to scavenge
for bottles and anything else that might sell for a small profit.
And where does the debris in this river end up?
Yes of course, in the sea.
Five million people live in the Citarum river basin and most rely on the flow
for their water supply
Will the Citarum River in East Java ever be clean?
The Citarum River is to get a $500 million clean-up
backed by a loan from the Asia Development Bank
MAKE A DIFFERENCE...
YOU
can made a difference, to save the planet. You can decide to walk to
the nearest rubbish... garbage...trash... bin instead of just throwing
your rubbish in the sea or on the ground where the rain washes it into
the storm water drains and...
Yes into the sea.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE - ONE PERSON AT A TIME.
