Speech

"Watch what you eat" a common phrase for nutritionists when talking about a person's health or telling someone to lay off of the fast food for a while and try a few vegetables. But could that common phrase mean more not just for humans, but for other species? A study by Kenyon and Kridler showed that out of the 100 fledglings (babybirds) that died of natural causes, 74 of them had plastic caps and other miscellaneous plastic bits in their stomachs. That's right, plastic. Not their usual diet of bugs and insects, but bright colorful pieces of plastic. Finding plastic in the stomachs of dead creatures used to be a rare occurance, but since the 1970s the amount of plastic found in the oceans and the animals is more than 100 times greater today. 

As fascinating as Flotsam and Jetsam are (floatsam being items floating in the water and jetsam being items that are carried by ocean currents), they hint at a greater issue-ocean garbage patches. Specifically the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patches. These areas of the Pacific Ocean essentially contain a whirlpool, created by the currents, that suck in garbage. The idea of a "garbage patch", however, provides us with an incorrect image of this situation by implying a landfill in the ocean. The real "patch" consists of a great assortment of items including water bottles floating here and there, some buoys floating miles from their home, and other random lost and forgotten marine debris scattered all around. The real reason for the name is because of the microplastics that float on or just under the surface of the ocean. Any tiny piece of plastic that is 5mm or smaller in diameter is considered a microplastic. When a water bottle sits in the ocean, it begins to break down, but not like biodegradable products that dissolve or change into other byproducts such as carbon and water, it simply breaks into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic-hince the term microplastic. 

Cleaning the patches up, however, creates an even larger issue. The location of the Pacific Garbage Patches, not close to the shores of any particular country, invokes a reluctance to claim the bill for the clean up. Also, these patches, including the microplastics, compose a new environment for bugs like the Sea Skaters, both predators and prey, lay their eggs on the floating garbage. Similar ecosystems, such as this one, develop among the debris, putting all of the animals in that ecosystem in danger of mistaking the plastic as a source of food. The reasons go on and on preventing the not-so-simple long clean up  to begin. 

One last thing to consider when cleaning, is stopping the source. You must first turn the faucet off stopping the flow of water if you want to ever completely drain a bathtub. The same concept applies to issue of the Pacific Garbage Patches. The trouble is, oceanographers cannot exactly pin-point the source of the garbage and plastic. Some debris comes from supply ships that get stuck in a storm and loose some of their cargo or natural disasters like the tsunami in Japan washing the ruins out to sea. Other comes from towns and cities that load their waste onto barges and dump it in the water. Fishing nets and fishing traps become ghosts that float free because of storms or boat traffic in the water ensnaring many creatures. NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) determined that at least 80% of the trash in the ocean comes from land. The most simple cause-litter left on the ground by people.

How do we help combat the incessant growth of the Pacific Garbage Patches especially the plastics and microplastics? In a very simple way. The next time you see a water bottle, plastic rings, a lighter or any other type of trash laying on the ground, pick it up and put it in a trash can. If you, individually picked up just one, yes just one piece of plastic a day for one year that would be 365 less pieces of plastic and garbage that could and would end up as a meal of an unsuspecting bird or fish in the sea. If our entire class of 29 students participated in this clean up for an entire year starting today, we would clean up 10,585 pieces of garbage. Cleaning doesn't have to be difficult, picking up before makes the large scale clean up of the Pacific Garbage Patches less complicated, saving the lives of countless animals along the way.    

Thank you. 




Happy Holidays!!!