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Plastic Pollution in Oceans

Plastic pollution is the accumulation in the environment of synthetic plastic products to the point where they create problems for wildlife and their habitats as well as for human populations There are many things that contribute to the issue of plastic and water pollution such as: one use plastic products, use of cars, and burning millions of tons of fossil fuels. The issue of plastic pollution also has a large impact on the world as this pollution can cause irreversible effects to the oceans ecosystem.

Reasons for Plastic Pollution

The production of plastic increased rapidly following World War II, with in the increase of production . According to Smithsonian Ocean, humans have created about 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics to date, outgrowing all man-made materials other than steel and cement. There have been about 335 million metric tons of plastic produced each year as of 2016, most of it made from single-use plastics, which are discarded right after use. There has also been an estimated 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic that have been used and discarded in waste, results globally on average only about nine percent of the plastic that is produced being recycled . Around 12% of the plastic produced has been incinerated at disposal, but that leaves around 80% of the world’s plastics going into landfills or back into the environment . Throughout the world it has been document the regularly failed process of moving plastic through a solid waste collection system, which leads to its improper disposal or unlawfully littering all around the globe. Although, the amount of plastic that has been produced in the world has been discovered, the exact amount of plastic in the oceans has yet to be determined. There is an estimate that there are about 244,000 metric tons of plastic floating in the ocean . The amount of plastic in the ocean can circle the Earth 425 times, or go to the moon and back twice. Additionally, it has been estimated that addition to the plastic floating in the oceans there is another 8.5 million metric tons of plastic that settle on the bottom of the ocean each year.

How Much Plastic is in the Oceans

All parts of the world are being affected by the issue of plastic in our oceans. The North Pacific Ocean has the most plastic in ocean with around 192.8 million tons of plastic floating throughout just that region . The Indian Ocean is then next with an estimated 188.3 million tons of plastic throughout that region. Next, comes the North Atlantic Ocean with an estimated 112.9 million tons of plastic flowing through those waters each day. After that comes the South Pacific, which has an estimated 42 millions tons of plastic in it. Then comes the Mediterranean Sea that has about 46.3 million tons of plastic throughout its beautiful, polluted waters. Finally, the South Atlantic has the least amount of plastic in it landing in last with 25.6 million tons of plastic in it . In combination with the plastics found on the ocean's surface, those estimates exclude the millions tons of plastic underneath the ocean's surface.

What is a Gyre?

An ocean gyre are a massive circular ocean currents formed by the earth's wind patterns and the forces created by the earth’s rotation. Often time plastic that is floating throughout the ocean gets stuck in the center of a ocean gyre According to the National Ocean Service, there are five major gyres in the world: the North and South Pacific Subtropical Gyres, the North and South Atlantic Subtropical Gyres, and the Indian Ocean Subtropical Gyre. They help to move the ocean conveyor belt that circulates water around the entire planet, regulates temperature, sanity and nutrient flow. Debris drifts into these gyres and due to the fact that ocean gyres circle large areas of stationary, calm water cause the formation of garbage patches. There are around five garbage patches in the world, but the main and most severe one is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is more than twice the size of Texas and included 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. This accumulation of ocean plastic is located between California and Hawaii. All the plastic in this patch weighs around 80,000 tons and without proper treatment the number of plastic in this patch will continue to rise.

Henderson Islands

The rising numbers of plastic pollution in the world is affecting many different nations, however even one of the most remote and largely untouched places in the world are being affected by plastic is an island in the south Pacific called the Henderson Island. The Henderson Islands, which are a part of the United Kingdom’s Pitcairn Territory are a remote and uninhabited island. The island is a little over nine thousand acres and around 3,100 miles away from a mainland, but it is also home to one of the world’s best preserved raised coral atolls. However, there is approximately 37.7 million pieces of trash that have washed up on this island . This leads to the Henderson Islands being recently found to have the highest density of plastics pollution anywhere in the world. The gyres, or currents in the ocean are the reason for this extreme plastic pollution, as the Henderson Islands are located near the center of the South Pacific Ocean Gyre. All of this plastic pollution on the island is putting 200 species at risk from eating plastic, and around 55% of the world's sea birds, including two species found on Henderson Island, at risk from marine debris .

Effects on Marine Life

This plastic can affect marine wildlife in two important ways; by entangling creatures, and by being swallowed. The bodies of almost all marine species, ranging in size from plankton to marine mammals, and including some of the wildest and most vulnerable species on the planet animals that make nearly their entire living far from human beings now contain plastic. Sixty percent of 6,136 surface plankton net tows conducted in the Western North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea from 1986 to 2008 contained buoyant plastic pieces, typically millimeter in size. Plastics turn up in bird nests, are worn by hermit crabs instead of shells, and are present in sea turtle, whale and albatross stomachs. Over 260 species, including invertebrates, turtles, fish, seabirds and mammals, have been reported to ingest or become entangled in plastic debris, resulting in impaired movement and feeding, reduced reproductive output, lacerations, ulcers, and finally death. Ingestion of plastic items occurs much more frequently than entanglement. At sea, plastic bags may often be mistaken for jellyfish, whilst on shorelines seabirds have been seen to pick up plastic items the same way they pick up cuttlefish bones. In the North Sea, almost all Northern Fulmars contain some plastic. Microscopic fragments, in some locations outweighing surface zooplankton, revealed a significant increase in abundance when samples from the 1960s and 1970s were compared with those of 1980s and 1990s. When ingested, such small particles can also be carried from the gut into other body tissues. Ingestion of plastic can lead to wounds both internal and external, while also causing an impairment to their feeding ability and finally it could cause a blockage of digestive tract, which will cause starvation ultimately leading to death. Plastics and organic contaminants they typically eat along with the concentrate of plastics at levels far superior to the surrounding marine environment have been shown to affect both development and reproduction in a wide range of marine organisms. Mollusks and crustaceans appear to be particularly sensitive to these compounds. Being an important food item for many species, plastics ingested by invertebrates then have the potential to transfer toxic substances up the food chain. The mechanism by which ingestion leads to illness and death can often only be surmised because the animals at sea are unobserved or are found dead ashore. Once blackened with marine life or sediment, plastic items sink to the seafloor contaminating the sea bed. Deployment of a remotely operated vehicle submarine in the Fram Strait in the Arctic revealed 0.2 to 0.9 pieces of plastic per km. On dives between 5,500 and 6,770 m, 15 items of debris were observed, of which 13 were plastic. The presence of plastic at shallow and greater depths may harm sediment wildlife such as worms, deposit feeders and detritivores, all known to accidentally ingest plastics. The hard surface of plastics also provides an attractive and alternate substrate to natural floating debris for a number of different marine animals. The increasing availability of these synthetic and non-biodegradable materials in marine debris may increase the dispersal and prospects for invasion by non-indigenous species.

Future of Plastic Pollution

There are many different measures that are being taken in present day to combat pollution. Those include petitions being created for the ocean conservation, more regulations for the amount of plastic that large companies or factories can make or use. Additionally, beach cleanups have happened and continue to happen throughout the world. There also has been movements to eliminate the use of plastic straws and bags, as many supermarkets have switched to paper bags. Recycling has also been pushed to become a norm all around the world to help reduce the pollution. There are many different ocean organizations that have dedicated their cause to combating plastic pollution in the oceans. Some of those organizations are: Ocean Conservancy, 4Ocean, Parley, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Clean Oceans International and Surfers Against Sewage.

Citations

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12. Reddy, Simon. “Plastic Pollution Affects Sea Life Throughout the Ocean.” The Pew Charitable Trusts, 24 Sept. 2018, www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2018/09/24/plastic-pollution-affects-sea-life-throughout-the-ocean.
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