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Ocean Debris - Plastic Pollution and Marine Environments.
Marine debris, or rubbish in oceans and waterways, has negative impacts on marine life and ecosystems. Plastic pollution is a major component of marine debris and takes many forms from large plastic bags and bottles to microscopic plastic pellets and microplastics. This pollution enters the oceans from various sources both on land and at sea and accumulates in ocean garbage patches called gyres. Once in the ocean, plastic is often mistaken as food by marine animals and can be ingested, causing harm. Plastic also absorbs chemicals in the ocean, becoming toxic. Research is needed to better understand the impacts of plastic pollution and find solutions to reduce waste and mitigate its effects in the marine environment.
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- 1. What is MarineDebris?
- 2. A world withoutrubbish bins ………….. Photo: William Rodriguez/Marine Photobank
- 3. All rivers runto the ocean.
- 4. Notice the platypus?It’s not just our salt waterways that are affected www.tangaroablue.org China, Indonesia,Some of the effects of marine debris on marine life - entanglement and ingestion Photo: www.surfrider.org Photo: www.theplasticfreechef.com Photo: Chris Jordan Photo: Paul Sharp/ Two Hands Organisation Photo: Dolphin Discovery Centre/Bunbury
- 5. www.tangaroablue.org Pre-production plastic resin pellets Fragmentingpost-production plastic items
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- 7. www.tangaroablue.org Plastic resin pelletsand micro plastics are very small Pre-production plastic resin pellets Fragmenting post-production plastic items
- 8. www.tangaroablue.org Plastic resin pelletscalled ‘Nurdles’ can find their way into the oceans. Granules of poly(ethene) which are then used to make film, extruded into pipes or moulded.
- 9. www.tangaroablue.org Plastic resin pelletsand micro plastics are very small
- 10. www.tangaroablue.org Plastic resin pelletsand micro plastics are very small Plastic resin pellets change colour depending on how long they have been in the ocean. The darker the shade, the more toxins it has absorbed in the ocean. The chemical pollutants are organic compounds known as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). They are called ‘persistent’ because they do not go away and stay in the food chain.
- 11. http://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/whats-the-problem/toxic-combination.html Nurdles work astoxic sponges. Plastic resin pellets change colour depending on how long they have been in the ocean. The darker the shade, the more toxins it has absorbed in the ocean. The chemical pollutants are organic compounds known as Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). They are called ‘persistent’ because they do not go away and stay in the food chain.
- 12. www.tangaroablue.org A plastic resinpellet can easily be ingested along with other planktonic food sources, making a toxic meal for marine life. Nurdles are the same size and resemble many marine food sources.
- 13. Marine life oftenmistake micro plastics and resin pellets as fish eggs and other small food sources. www.tangaroablue.org These pieces of plastic came out of a turtle’s stomach! Plastic resin pellets and micro plastics are very small Photo: Algalita This is a rainbow runnner caught in the North Pacific – it had ingested plastics. Can you see the plastic resin pellet? This is a shearwater bird – over 100 of these birds were found at Freshwater Beach in Sydney, many had pellets and micro plastics in them.
- 14. Look at thispicture of rubbish in a river making its way to the ocean. I wonder where it is and if it will end up on your beach? www.tangaroablue.org Photo: William Rodriguez/Marine Photobank
- 15. www.tangaroablue.org Site Number of Clean- ups TotalItems Average of Land Source Index Average of Sea Source Index Average of Percentage of Plastic Site Locality Centre Thursday Island Federal Beach 10 1809 62% 38% 46% Thursday Island Torres Strait Chilli Beach Middle 4 4215 1% 99% 93% Cape Weymouth Lockhart Cape Kimberley North and South 6 54233 3% 97% 76% Cape Kimberley Cape Kimberley 4MB Middle Section 129 54280 47% 53% 69% Port Douglas Port Douglas Tallebudgera Beach 1 1144 45% 55% 57% Palm Beach Gold Coast Marine Debris Source Pattern, Queensland
- 16. www.tangaroablue.org Highly mobile Limited dispersion Encumbered drift Unencumbered drift Disposedof at sea Decreasing chance of the item having a local source with respect to the clean-up location Broken glass Beer stubbies Broken glass Beer stubbies Cigarette butts Aluminium cans Plastic bags Fishing line Cigarette butts Aluminium cans Plastic bags Fishing line Plastic bits and pieces Lids and tops Plastic food packaging Plastic film remnants Plastic bits and pieces Lids and tops Plastic food packaging Plastic film remnants Polystyrene foam Plastic drink bottles Drinking straws and cutlery Polystyrene foam Plastic drink bottles Drinking straws and cutlery Commercial fishing remnants Rope and nets Rope and net scraps Commercial fishing remnants Rope and nets Rope and net scraps Does not disperse How the index works
- 17. www.tangaroablue.org James Cook Universitymarine debris data on Ross River, Townsville Kay Critchell 2012 – Research topic data
- 19. www.tangaroablue.org These items wereall found on Australian beaches in North Queensland These products are not made in Australia How do you think they ended up on our beaches?
- 20. www.tangaroablue.org Once the rubbishis in the ocean, it spreads around everywhere and accumulates in rubbish pools called gyres There are at least five of them in the world at the moment! Photo: www.sciencelearn.org.nz
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- 22. www.tangaroablue.org Example of amarine food web
- 23. www.tangaroablue.org Some examples ofmarine life that have ingested plastic Seabird Rainbow runner Photo: Chris Jordan Photo: Algalita
- 24. www.tangaroablue.org What can wedo about such a big problem? 2009: NSW town of Bundanoon bans bottled water sales and offers free refill points.
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- 26. 1. What arethe impacts of plastic pollution on the condition and ecological integrity of benthic habitats? 2. What are the sub-lethal (acute) impacts of exposure to plastic pollution? 3. How will climate change influence the impact and mitigation of plastic pollution? 4. What are the impacts of plastics on ecological processes in key marine and estuarine habitats? 5. What are the alternatives to plastic? 6. What are the costs and benefits of mitigating plastic pollution? 7. What are the barriers and opportunities for delivering effective education and awareness strategies? 8. How can we use structured decision making to determine mitigation strategies for reducing plastic pollution impacts and measure their effectiveness? 9. What are the social implications of plastic pollution impacts and their management? 10. How can we improve data integration to quantify risk and refine management? www.tangaroablue.org Top 20 Priority Marine Debris Research Questions Amanda Vegter 2012 – Research topic data James Cook University
- 27. 11. How doesplastic pollution contribute to the transfer of non-native, invasive species? 12. What are the population-level impacts of plastic pollution and can they be quantified? 13. What factors drive the transport and deposition of plastic pollution in the marine environment? 14. Where are the global hotspots of accumulated plastic pollution (sinks)? 15. What and where are the main sources of plastic pollution entering the marine environment? 16. What are the species-level impacts of plastic pollution and can they be quantified? 17. What are the barriers and opportunities for developing standard approaches to quantify plastic pollution in the marine and coastal habitats? 18. How does plastic pollution impact the trophic system? 19. What types of plastics are having the greatest impact on both marine habitats and the marine environment? 20. What are the species- and population-level impacts of wildlife entanglement? www.tangaroablue.org Top 20 Priority Research Questions
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Editor's Notes
- #2 The Australian Marine Debris Initiative is coordinated by Tangaroa Blue Foundation. It is a national network of volunteers, industry groups, government and communities focused on the removal of marine debris from the coastline, collection of standardised data on what is being found, analysis and tracking of debris sources and implementation of mitigation strategies to find solutions to the marine debris issue.