Each year, the International Coastal Cleanup is organized by the Ocean Conservancy, which is based in Washington, D.C. In September 2008, the group attracted nearly 400,000 volunteers.
Reuters reported on the campaign on March 11, 2009, “Topping the list of the 11.4 million items of trash collected,” said the news agency, “were cigarette butts, plastic bags, and food wrappers and containers. In the Philippines alone, 11,077 diapers were picked up and 19,504 fishing nets were recovered in Britain.”
Garbage Problem Getting Worse
The United Nations Environment Program says,“Marine litter is one of the most pervasive and solvable pollution problems plaguing the world’s ocean and waterways.”
The Ocean Conservancy agrees. In its 2009 report the non-profit group says, “…despite national and international regulations against dumping, some people on boats still drop trash directly into the ocean. 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, travelling thousands of miles on ocean currents.”
“Toxic materials enter the food chain, sharp items injure beachgoers, and accident-causing debris snarls boat propellers. Trash weakens economies, sapping precious dollars from tourism and our seafood industries. And, it harms individual species as well as entire ecosystems, like coral reefs, that are essential for the survival of marine life.”
Ghost Nets Kill Sea Creatures
Lost or discarded fishing nets have become silent killers all over the high seas. These nets drift around the oceans ensnaring sea turtles, dolphins, sharks, fish, sea birds, and other marine life.
In April 2006, the Pacific cyclone Monica threw masses of debris onto beaches on the western side of Cape York Peninsula, in Queensland, Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the aftermath in an article entitled “Ghost Net Turtle Toll Rises as Cyclone Nears.” The newspaper quoted Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council chief executive Stuart Wright.
“We get turtles, fish, and all sorts of flotsam washing up onto our beaches, but it’s a lot worse during cyclones...
“We estimate there’s between 400 and 1,000 nets on a 10-kilometre stretch of beach north and south of Mapoon and probably one in 10 nets has a turtle in it.”
The newspaper also reported that one net found in the Gulf of Carpentaria was a “gill net about four kilometres long, with a drop of 12 metres and weighing an estimated five tonnes."
Ocean Cleanup
In addition to the International Coastal Cleanup program other organizations, such as highseasghost.net, are trying to deal with the ghost net problem. In the United Kingdom, Beach Litter works to clean up the country’s coastlines, while an equivalent group in the U.S. is blueoceansociety.org.
 |
