Research - Pelagic Plastic - Gyre Voyage 2002
UPDATE:
At the time this article was written the sources for much of the marine debris on Tern Island were not able to be identified. However a recent study has been conducted using data collected by USFS volunteers on Tern Island, FFS. This study has assigned a figure 22.6% of the debris on the island as coming from a maritime orgin. The group of items attibuted to maritime origin was composed of derelict fishing gear (Morishige, et al., 2007).
Updated: 2/08
French Frigate Shoals Voyage 2002
Phase 2 of the Central Pacific Research Voyage
Trash and debris hitting Hawaii's tourist beaches is no longer mainly soda bottles and styrofoam cups that are easily removed during beach cleanups. Recent debris impacts on Waimanalo Beach, Oahu, have been mounds of mysterious plastic fragments numbering in the millions and probably billions. Algalita Marine Research Foundation is an institution which has dedicated itself to the understanding and elimination of this emerging threat to everything in the marine environment from jellyfish who accidentally ingest these fragments to tourists, whose experience of once pristine beaches is diminished greatly by persistent debris.
AMRF has published peer reviewed scientific studies in Marine Pollution Bulletin comparing these fragments floating in the ocean to the available food with which they are intermixed. The results were shocking. In the central Pacific, northeast of Hawaii, AMRF found 6 pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton near the surface. In Southern California coastal waters where plankton are more abundant, AMRF found 2.5 pounds of plastic fragments for every pound of plankton. Plankton are the small plants and animals that serve as the basic food for all marine life directly or as part of the food chain.
In an attempt to correlate these findings with their sources, AMRF in cooperation with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and marine flotsam expert Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, is undertaking its most ambitious voyage yet to the Northwestern Hawaiian Island's little known coral atoll called French Frigate Shoals. For 10 years, from 1990 to 2000, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) collected debris from the Shoal's main islet, Tern Island, created largely by dredging and filling for an airstrip in WWII. Although USFWS kept meticulous records of the types and quantities of the tons of debris that washed up on shore, and an academic paper was published on the results, they were not able to identify the sources other than to attribute plastic debris in general, which was 70% of the total, to maritime industries. As Sylvia Earle commented to AMRF Founder, Captain Charles Moore in a conversation about plastic debris: "It's so anonymous!" This debris breaks down in the marine environment into ever smaller particles through a process called photodegration. Unlike natural debris, the final step which breaks down debris into its component parts for uptake as food never occurs with plastic. Plastic photodegrades, but it never biodegrades. Therefore when it is mistakenly ingested by marine filter feeders, fish, birds and mammals it causes a wide variety of problems from false feelings of satiation to buildup of toxic chemicals and hormonal imbalance. As an example of the seriousness of the problem, 80 of 140 bird species examined in one study, were shown to have ingested plastic fragments.
Dr. Sylvia Earle is Explorer in Residence at the National Geographic Society, and the former head of NOAA. Dr. Earle and Captain Moore of AMRF believe it is time to begin "pinning the tail on the donkey," by pinning responsibility for this insidious threat to the marine food web on its sources. Although no single nation or industry is responsible, producers and users of plastic products that are released into the marine environment accidentally or on purpose and then break down to contaminate our food resources must to be stopped!
AMRF's summer of 2002 voyage to Tern Island will enlist the help of Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, the world's leading expert in marine flotsam. AMRF will fly Dr. Ebbesmeyer to the atoll to view the pallets of debris collected by USFWS and to make trips to outlying islands of French Frigate Shoals which have not been investigated. With his knowledge of the origins of marine flotsam, AMRF hopes to obtain information which will help them in their effort to reduce the inputs of non-biodegradable plastics, which are fouling our beaches and poisoning wildlife, and possibly us.
Posted: 7/26/02