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Plastic Pollution of Marine Environments (Geographical Location of Marine…
Plastic Pollution of Marine Environments
Marine Debris
Environmental Impact
Plastic doesn't degrade for hundreds of years
Kills large amounts of marine wildlife every year
Puts chemicals into seafood we eat
Tangles Marine wildlife which prevents them from eating, breeding and sleeping.
Plastic breaks down into smaller pieces known as 'micro-plastics' which are swallowed by seabirds and fish. These plastics then build up in their stomach and prevents them from eating
Geographical Location of Marine Debris
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Estimated to be from 700,000 to 15 million square kilometres
Average depth of 10 metres
1 million plastic particles per square kilometre
Gulf of Carpentaria
During the north-west monsoon season ghost nets are washed on to the western shores
During the south-west trade season ghost nets are washed from the Arafura sea to the eastern shores.
Due to the two seasons a gyre pattern appears and allows the build up of ghost nets. This is quite similar to the GPOGP only smaller.
Caribbean
Large Patches of garbage ranging to 5 meters deep
Endangered Turtles are getting tangled in nets floating around
Solutions
Ghost nets
Organizations like Ghost nets Australia travel around beaches untangling wildlife and give the nets to indigenous artists who create art work which which raises the awareness of the effect of ghost nets on the environment.
If we used more biodegradable products like hemp rather than nylon, the amount of years taken for the product to degrade would be much lower.
The current solutions disposing of fishing nets is hugely inadequate as we only have three ways to do it. And all of them are flawed. The first option is burning however that creates GHG. The second option is to send it to landfill but that only gets buried and can still end up in our waterways. And the third option is to recycle which works perfectly except for the fact that there is only 2 places near Australia which recycle fishing nets and that is Adelaide and Taiwan. So therefore the shipping far outweighs the cost of the new product.
Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch
Large ocean trawlers collecting big pieces of rubbish before they break up into micro-plastics.
Ocean cleanup operations like system 001 which has a line of netting that stretches for kilometres to collect plastic without harming wildlife.
Micro-plastics
When big groups of plastic break down they turn into micro-plastics which are then swallowed by marine life. To prevent this big pieces of plastic should be collected and properly recycled.
Micro-Plastics look like worms and other small fish and therefore are eaten by larger fish and seabirds.
How does this affect me?
Food
Every year Australia produces around 230,000 tonnes of seafood. Seafood is an important staple of Australian cuisine and therefore we consume roughly 345,000 tonnes every year. Of that 345,000 tonnes 66 percent is imported. {1}
Water
Heavy metal pollution causes defects to babies who drink and bathe in the water.
Human waste causes infections and rashes from drinking / bathing
Water pollution causes a lack of fish and lack of fresh water
Economy
Tourism
Every year Australia gets around 9.3 million visitors who add $44 billion to our economy. According to tourism Australia 70 percent of all international visitors come to Australia for its coasts and aquatic wildlife. They also say that Australia is ranked number one in the world for marine wildlife and aquatic beauty. {2} {3}
Seafood
The Australian fishing industry makes roughly $1.2 billion annually through exporting alone. [1]
Bibliography
{1}
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/fisheries/aus-seafood-trade.pdf
- {2}
http://www.tourism.australia.com/content/dam/assets/document/1/7/1/k/b/2008235.pdf
- {3}
http://www.tourism.australia.com/en/about/our-campaigns/aquatic-and-coastal.html