What is Marine Debris?
“Marine Debris” includes man-made trash, litter, discarded equipment and other solid material that enters our oceans and waterways and ends up floating out to sea or fouling our beaches and shorelines. Marine debris items include retail items like plastic bags, bottles, cans, straws, lids, cigarette filters, as well as larger items like fishing nets, construction materials and tires.  It also includes a growing problem of plastic pre-production pellets called nurdles entering our waters.  While there are many types of debris, the common origin is us: people.  Another common theme among marine debris is that 90% of it is plastic.

Plastic is Forever
Although the birth of plastics has improved civilized life in various ways, it has also unleashed into our environment immeasurable amounts of unnatural material with everlasting negative effects on our natural world.  The qualities that make plastic useful are the same attributes that result in the damaging and degrading effect on our environment.  Plastic is strong, versatile and long-lasting.  A plastic bottle can float in the ocean in recognizable form for 450 years.  However, most forms of plastic never biodegrade.  Through photodegradation, plastic exposed to ultraviolet sun rays gradually breaks into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic.  Plastic exists in many commonly littered products, including cigarette butts.  In short, every single piece of plastic ever produced still exists today.  As stated accurately by Captain Charles Moore, a noted marine debris researcher, “plastic, like diamonds, is forever”.    

Photo Courtesy of Ocean Conservancy.

The Problem
Lightweight and durable, plastic settles on the ocean floor, floats with ocean currents and gets deposited on beaches.  We are creating a man-made sea of plastic which could potentially last for centuries or even millennia.  Plastic does not belong in the marine environment and its negative effects are far-reaching. 

Marine Debris is Replacing Marine Animals
Plastic is harmful to marine animals in many ways including strangulation, ingestion or entanglement.  Each year, up to 100,000 marine mammals die entangled in marine debris. 

Marine animals mistake small pieces of marine debris for food and some even feed it to their young.  Seabirds commonly swallow small pieces of plastic, which may look to them like fish eggs or squid.  Sea turtles commonly eat plastic grocery bags, which look like jellyfish in the water.  Because plastic contains no nutrients, ingestion of marine debris can lead to starvation, suffocation, toxic poisoning and eventually death.  For animals who survive ingesting marine debris, the plastic survives within them and, through bioaccumulation, it enters our food chain. Bits of plastic also absorb pollutants from the water making them even more toxic to marine life and the food chain. On April 20, 2010, the stomach of a deceased gray whale beached on a West Seattle beach revealed over 3 pounds of marine debris, including Ziploc bags, surgical gloves, plastic grocery bags, rope, fishing line, duct tape, towels and a golf ball.

In addition to the risks posed by small pieces of debris, abandoned fishing nets and gear can keep fishing, a disturbing phenomena known as ghostfishing which kills countless fish, crabs and other marine life every year.                                                            

                            Photo Courtesy of NOAA Marine Debris Program

Marine debris also negatively affects marine animals by overtaking and degrading their natural habitats.  In the North Pacific Ocean there is a huge circular feature called a gyre, composed of ocean currents circling a central point. This gyre, which is sometimes referred to as the “Giant Pacific Garbage Patch”, is also an area of concentrated marine debris, nearly twice the size of the United States. Researchers have found that the ratio of plastic to plankton by mass floating in this area is 6:1.

Marine Debris Hurts People Too
Marine debris includes improperly-disposed medical and personal hygiene items, including syringes, used diapers, condoms or other items that could contain pathogens and bacteria.  In addition, debris-cluttered beaches limit tourism and economic benefits for coastal destinations if they become physically dangerous or aesthetically altered.  From an ethical standpoint, if we have begun to live amongst our own trash and force the same upon the world’s marine life, it should raise moral concerns for each of us, as stewards of the natural world for future generations.

The Problem is Both Global and Local
Marine debris originates from two main sources: land-based and ocean/waterway-based.  Land-based sources include sewer overflows, storm drains, landfills, manufacturing and wastewater treatment plants and beachgoers.  Ocean/waterway-based sources include recreational boating, marine vessel repair, commercial fishing, and larger marine vessels including freighters and cruise ships.  Both sources exist worldwide, with each country contributing to the marine debris crisis in varying degrees.  Some people in developing countries without the landfills and organized waste streams dispose of trash directly in or near the ocean and waterways.  Local sources of marine debris here in the Puget Sound area include combined sewer overflows, street runoff, deliberate illegal dumping and careless litter.

What Now?
It will take a sea change of behavior to correct our course, but is not too late to solve the marine debris crisis.  There are many things individuals can do to prevent marine debris from entering our waterways and to help remove the debris already out there.  In addition small changes in consumer behavior can add up to powerful impacts.

To prevent the creation of marine debris, stop buying single-use plastic items.  Stop buying bottled water, and instead use reusable bottles and home-filtered water. Choose glass over plastic whenever possible. Avoid plastic bags, unless they are reusable and you reuse them.  Instead of disposable plastic lighters, purchase and reuse a refillable lighter or use paper matches.  Recycle everything that you can. 

 
Consumer choices are important, but eliminating the pollution source is critical:  Dispose of all plastic items properly in secured trash or recycling containers.  Make a personal commitment to never litter, including discarding of cigarette butts the number-one form of litter worldwide.  Encourage others you know to do the same. 

A simple way to remove marine debris is if you see trash on the beach, pick it up!  You can do this as part of a concerted effort or casually by picking up a few pieces as you walk back. You may find it addicting! You can do it individually or by joining any of the hundreds of organizations locally, regionally or nationally that collaborate on beach clean-up events.  Encourage parks and cities to provide adequate trash collection for public areas. Encourage local lawmakers to enact strict anti-littering laws and encourage local law enforcement agencies to enforce the laws.  Support organizations working towards a solution.

2011 Cleanup events.  Please join us!