PLASTIC POLLUTION - A GLOBAL PROBLEM

For years we’ve heard about the North Pacific Gyre (or Garbage Patch) where there is up to six times more plastic in the ocean than plankton. We’ve seen tragic photos of thousands of Endangered Laysan Albatross chicks that have died as a result of ingesting plastic on remote islands in Hawaii. And have watched eminent speakers like Captain Charles Moore speak to captivated audiences about our plastic addiction.

What most people don’t realize is that the North Pacific Garbage Patch is not the only one of its kind. There are at least five others, fed by more than 3.2 million plastic items that enter the world's oceans each and every day. The wind and wave patterns that lead to the development of Gyres redistribute this plastic around the globe, so that one country’s garbage washes up in anothers backyard. Its time to reconsider the infamous quote “Garbage Patch the size of Texas” and start thinking outside the box. Unlike Texas, ocean basins do not have boundaries. Our garbage is everywhere. Even in Antarctica.

So its not just Laysan Albatross that come into contact with plastic floating in the ocean. In fact, more than 200 seabird species are known to ingest plastic. This plastic accumulates toxins such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at up to 106x surrounding seawater concentrations.  Once ingested, plastic can block or rupture the digestive tract and leak contaminants into the bird’s blood stream resulting in stomach ulcerations, liver damage, infertility, and in many cases, death.  Here in Australia, 96% of Flesh-footed Shearwaters Puffinus carneipes breeding on Lord Howe Island contain plastic. In 2011, one chick was found to have more than 275 pieces of plastic in it’s stomach (equivalent to an average human ingesting 11kg of plastic).  Not surprisingly, the Lord Howe Island Flesh-footed Shearwater population has declined by more than 50% since 1978. To address this serious issue, Dr. Jennifer Lavers is leading a research project to determine whether techniques to remove plastic (and therefore contaminants; see 2011 Publication) from shearwater stomachs can be safely employed as a management tool for seabirds and other species at risk from plastics.

Collaborators:  Ian Hutton and Plastic Oceans

To donate to this research, click here

‘This [imaginary] plastic man will come into a world of colour and bright shining surfaces where childish hands find nothing to break, no sharp edges, or corners to cut or graze, no crevices to harbour dirt or germs... The walls of his nursery, his bath ... all his toys, his cot, the teething ring he bites, the unbreakable bottle he feeds from [all plastic]. As he grows he cleans his teeth and brushes his hair with plastic brushes, clothes himself with in plastic clothes, writes his first lesson with a plastic pen and does his lessons in a book bound with plastic. The windows of his school curtained with plastic cloth entirely grease- and dirt-proof ... and the frames, like those of his house are of moulded plastic, light and easy to open never requiring any paint.’ (Yarsley & Couzens 1945)