Marine Debris: Pervasive... And Solvable
 A sea turtle gets tangled in discarded fishing gear. |
The ocean, far from limitless in its ability to absorb our refuse, now suffers from clogged shorelines, huge amounts of trash floating thousands of miles out at sea, and accumulations that smother life on the sea floor. To combat the unsightly and dangerous debris in our ocean, we need to know exactly what we are putting out there and where it comes from. The Marine Debris Index paints that picture, item by item.
Your candy bar wrapper may make it to the beach before you get there. Litter can travel to the ocean from many miles inland, blown on the wind or carried along by rivers and streams. We are all responsible for cigarette butts, food wrappers, bottles, and bags in the water. Overflowing sewage systems and storm drains add to the burden by ferrying trash from rural roads and city streets to the sea. In recent years, organic materials that were once the most prevalent component of marine debris have been supplanted by synthetics. Not only do items like packing straps, tarps, nets, and containers last for years, but also they are often highly buoyant, traveling thousands of miles on ocean currents.
Every year, thousands of marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, and other animals are sickened, injured, or killed because of trash in the ocean. Animals can choke or become poisoned when they eat trash, or drown when they become entangled in bags, ropes, and old fishing gear. The loss of wildlife affects not only the beauty and health of the planet, but also countless local economies based on the bounty of the sea.
Marine debris is yet another stress on an ocean already beleaguered by many other human-caused stresses including coastal development, pollution, overfishing, and now climate change. Keeping our ocean trash-free is one of the easiest ways we can help improve the ocean's resilience with regard to the affects of climate change, giving the ocean, its wildlife, and all of us a fighting chance to adapt.
What can you do?
The answer is simple: Trash doesn't fall from the sky, it falls from our hands. We can clean it up, and stop it from getting into the ocean in the first place. During the 2008 Cleanup, volunteers picked up an astounding 6.8 million pounds of trash along an estimated 17,000 miles of coastline. Of the 43 specific items tallied from light bulbs to fishing line, the top three items recorded were cigarette butts (3.2 million), plastic bags (1.4 million) and food wrappers/containers (943 thousand). In all, 11.4 million items were collected. All these things can be easily contained if people dispose of them carefully.
During the 2008 Cleanup, volunteers collected 11,077 diapers in the Philippines, more than 19,504 fishing nets in the United Kingdom, and more than 1.4 million cigarette butts in the US. That's the kind of information that helps planners at the local, regional, national, and international levels tackle marine debris effectively.
National Debris Monitoring Program & Final Report
In 2007, Ocean Conservancy released key findings from the National Marine Debris Monitoring Program (NMDMP), a five-year national study of trash in the ocean. Ocean Conservancy's research was conducted from 2001 to 2006 with the goal of setting a nationwide scientific baseline of the marine debris problem in the US. The study, funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was conducted by 600 volunteers who monitored debris in 21 coastal states, islands and territories.
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Printed on , © Copyright 2010 Ocean Conservancy
1300 19th Street, NW,
8th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
800.519.1541
202.429.5609
The Ocean Conservancy, International Coastal Cleanup and Ocean Action Network are registered trademarks of Ocean Conservancy.
Visit www.oceanconservancy.org/contactus for regional office addresses and email information.
Printed on
, © Copyright 2010 Ocean Conservancy
The Ocean Conservancy, International Coastal Cleanup and Ocean Action Network are registered trademarks of Ocean Conservancy.
1300 19th Street, NW,
8th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
800.519.1541
202.429.5609