Plastic Problem

What is the most dangerous snake in the world? Could it be the plastic snake?

Google “plastic debris in oceans” and over three million sites pop up discussing a problem that has no solution. “Plastic debris is ubiquitous,” according to Inspiration Green, “because so much of our plastic ends up at sea and finds itself forever looping in the waters of the Pacific.” Caught in the currents of the Pacific Gyre with its cool, dark waters that prevent it from disintegrating, our plastic waste might be eternal.

Breaking Down

“The thinner pieces do eventually break down into ever smaller pieces,” says Inspiration Green, “and become deadly to plankton eating fish.” Thicker, harder, more colorful plastics, however, are favored by Albatross who consume flying fish eggs attached to floating objects and then regurgitate them to their chicks. “Forty percent of all Albatross chicks birthed on Midway Atoll die each year due to ingestion of plastics.” Causes of death are attributed to choking, dehydration, or starvation, not to mention death from toxicity when a cigarette lighter is ingested.

P1030788

“Thousands of tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year and break down into smaller pieces over time,” says Huffington Post. According to the Huffington site, Scripps Institute of Oceanography graduate student Miriam Goldstein led a group of researchers off the California coast in August 2009 to collect marine specimens at various depths and document the impacts of the garbage on sea life, discovering that nearly 10 percent of fish studied during the trip had ingested plastic.

Difficult to See

Because most of the plastic pieces have disintegrated into specks spread across thousands of miles of ocean, the garbage cannot be seen by satellite and is difficult to see with the naked eye. And floating debris may be only a small part of what the ocean contains.

P1030795

“Oceanographer Giora Proskurowski was sailing in the Pacific Ocean when he saw the small bits of plastic debris disappear beneath the water as soon as the wind picked up,” reported Live Science April 27, 2012. “His research on the theory, with Tobias Kukulka of the University of Delaware, suggests that on average plastic debris in the ocean may be 2.5 times higher than estimates using surface-water sampling.  In high winds, the volume of plastic trash could be underestimated by a factor of 27, the researchers report this month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.”

Trawling for Fragments

Microscopic fragments invisible to the naked eye become evident when brought in by trawling nets. Plastic bags and bottles degrade over decades when exposed to UV light and sea water, impacting marine environment. “Plastic waste can wreak havoc on an ecosystem,” says the UK publication The Guardian, September 27, 2012, “harming fish and other organisms that ingest it, possibly even degrading a fish’s liver.  Birds and fish regularly consume waste products, which can be easily mistaken for jellyfish or other prey but cannot be degraded in the stomach.”

Plastics also slowly release toxins and other chemical substances that work their way up the marine food chain, according to The Guardian.

Shifting Practices

“It’s too late to do much about what’s already out there at this stage,” says Chris Bowler, scientific co-ordinator of Tara Oceans, “as this stuff is going to hang around for thousands of years.” The best way to mitigate future pollution, he says, is to advocate the use of biodegradable technologies while emphasizing a shift in consumer practices.

And that’s a good practice, even when it comes to plastic snakes.

P1030798

 

Leave a Comment