Sailing the Synthetic Seas... page 5
Tuesday, February 13, 2008
Latitude: 35 31.691 North; Longitude: 141 00.317 West
We just passed mile 3,000 of our journey. Today’s daytime sample yielded something we haven’t yet seen: numerous microfilaments and tiny line fragments embedded in the net of our sampling tubes. These fibers are the main category of debris found in our deeper subsurface trawls, up to 100 meters below. The calm waters allowed these fragments to float to the surface, where they lodged in our nets. The small particle size that we continue seeing here in this “inner ring” of the gyre may mean that this debris has been kicking around here for some time, swirling around in an endless spin cycle where it degrades into tiny, fouled fragments.
According to data collected from surveys, and the coastal cleanup events, 80 percent of the marine debris that washes up on beaches originates from land-based sources. Out here, much of the identifiable debris (objects still large enough to recognize) comes from the fishing industry: fishing floats, ropes, net fragments and other derelict fishing gear. The majority of what we’re finding, though, is made up of plastic fragments.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Latitude: 35 45.287 North; Longitude: 138 34.245 West
We completed our last two samples today, wrapping up a reprise of the 1999 research. The chance to repeat this study 10 years later was truly a golden opportunity. While it’s too early to draw any conclusions, we can safely say that the number of plastic particles per area of sea surface has increased dramatically. The rapid accumulation of plastic marine debris parallels the increase in production and consumption of disposable plastics worldwide.
Our very last trawl was a night sample that came up with another 20 lantern fish, or “myctophids.” The image in the glass collection jar looks like an aquarium of bioluminescent fish in a pool of plastic soup. The question on everyone’s mind is, does plastic debris, as well as the organic pollutants that plastic contains, contaminate the fish? We packed the fish in our onboard freezer for analysis of ingested plastic and bioaccumulation of toxins in some organs. Scientists, policymakers and the general public want to know if plastic marine debris is a human health issue. This research will investigate toxin migration up the food chain.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Latitude: 35 19.77 North; Longitude: 125 50.314
We’re donning our foul-weather gear. Our days of shorts and tank tops seem a distant memory. The questions about solutions continue. We continue musing as we approach land, contemplating the work ahead. Changing behavior is a monumental undertaking. And eliminating plastics from our lives would be impossible. The problems arise with our inefficient, excessive consumption and our highly flawed plastics recycling system. The concept of using durable, petroleum plastics, designed to last for hundreds of thousands of years, to carry our groceries or seal a sandwich for an hour is ludicrous. We can dramatically replace single-use disposables with reusable items.
Two ubiquitous ones you can immediately banish from your repertoire:
Water bottles—we see plastic bottles everywhere. We even see the plastic caps in seabirds’ stomachs.
Plastic bags—not just the bags you use to tote your groceries home, but the flimsy produce bags as well.
Friday, February 22, 2008: Almost home!
Latitude: 35 55.923 North; Longitude: 118 45.508
The final morning of our journey. As we approach land, we reflect on the results of our month at sea. Our goal was to continue gathering evidence, to answer some important questions about the health of our oceans and ultimately our own. We know that plastic trash is a problem. We know it doesn’t belong here, thousands of miles from land. We know it’s not good for marine creatures to be eating it and that it’s morally wrong for us to be fouling up their home. But in order to get the world to pay attention and start making changes, we need to PROVE it. We need accurate data and hard numbers so we can bring this information to governments, industries and the public—to show them just how serious this issue has become.
Return to land: A growing sense of urgency
Eight months later, we have a much better idea of how serious this issue has become. So serious, in fact, that it compelled three of us on board—myself, Eriksen and Paschal—to embark on an unusual mission to demand the world’s attention: Build a raft out of 15,000 plastic bottles and sail from Long Beach to Hawaii.
While the JUNK voyage is a story for another time, I mention this here only to underscore the sense of urgency we returned with. In the 10 years that Captain Moore and the Algalita Marine Research Foundation have been researching the North Pacific, we have seen an exponential increase in the quantities of oceanic plastic trash.
In 1999, based on Captain Moore’s surface trawls, plastic particles outweighed naturally occurring zooplankton by a factor of 6 to 1.
Now, in 2008, our recent results show a 46-to-1 ratio: 46 pounds of plastic for every pound of zooplankton.
Setting out on our January voyage, we had little idea that we would also come across a potential scientific goldmine: some new and startling findings in the shape of the small, prolific lantern fish, or myctophid. Every night, these silvery creatures surface to feed on zooplankton, which in turn surface to feed on phytoplankton. It’s a plankton-eat-plankton world, and now also a lantern-fish-eat-plastic world.
Instead of feasting on a rich diet of zooplankton, lantern fish are now feasting on more and more plastic, which has potentially devastating ripple effects, as lantern fish are a food source for many other top predators, tuna, mahi-mahi, salmon and, by extension, us humans.
