As an avid scuba diver, marine pollution is an issue that is close to my heart. It is an issue that I am not just mad about, but one that I am particularly eager to learn and put a limit to. I was inspired to choose this topic for this week, not just because of the extensive amounts of trash in our local waters – I participated in a dive over the break where we picked up 55 kg of plastic, fish traps and waste etc – and its effect on the wider marine eco-system, but I would also like to discover how it affects us, the originators of the waste.

After all, the plastic crisis has expanded on a scale so deleterious and pervasive that a report by CSIRO, Australia’s government-backed science agency discovered that plastic ingestion alone was responsible for the death of marine life across 80 different species (Readfearn, 2020). Plastic consumption not only perforates the digestive tracts of wildlife but it places marine animals at a higher propensity of disease, increased rates of toxic chemicals in their bodies and renders them especially vulnerable to fishermen and predators.

Turtles, especially are placed at higher rates of death by plastic as floating debris of bags and ropes represent cuttlefish and jellyfish, their natural diets. Helmy (2022) highlights how a shocking number of green turtles and loggerhead turtles (64!) were washed up dead on the shores of the United Arab Emirates due to plastic consumption. The culprit? Plastic. Of the 64 turtles that died, copious amounts of plastic were discovered in the guts of 75% of green turtles and 57% of loggerhead turtles

Source: Duncan et al. (2021)

This is a concerning prospect especially since plastic pollution is set to exponentially increase, with 19 to 23 million metric tons of plastic waste entering our marine ecosystems in 2016 alone! (Borelle et. al, 2020) If this does not worry you, consider this – it is highly likely that the fish we consume is gradually consuming more plastic as this form of pollution worsens. With improvements in detecting micro-plastic technology, it was discovered that marine life today are consuming 5 times more plastic than was originally thought (McInturf and Savorca, 2021). While the negative effects of microplastic on humans are not conclusive, several studies have discovered that potential side effects may include neurotoxicity and an increased risk of cancer.

Yet, plastic pollution is a thorn in our side that will not go away…

With the recent spike in single-use masks (made of polypropylene plastic) and other disposables due to the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that single-use plastic takes a shocking 450 years to break down into microplastics in our oceans (Whiting, 2018), it looks like the existence of plastic in our marine ecosystems is here to stay…

 

References

Borrelle, S., Ringma, J., Law, K., Monnahan, C., Lebreton, L., McGivern, A., Murphy, E., Jambeck, J., Leonard, G., Hilleary, M., Eriksen, M., Possingham, H., De Frond, H., Gerber, L., Polidoro, B., Tahir, A., Bernard, M., Mallos, N., Barnes, M. and Rochman, C., 2020. Predicted growth in plastic waste exceeds efforts to mitigate plastic pollution. Science, 369(6510), pp.1515-1518.

Helmy, S., 2022. UAE Turtles Washing Up Dead From Plastic Pollution – DeeperBlue.com. [online] DeeperBlue.com. Available at: <https://www.deeperblue.com/uae-turtles-washing-up-dead-from-plastic-pollution/>

McInturf, A. and Savoca, M., 2021. Hundreds of fish species, including many that humans eat, are consuming plastic. [online] The Conversation. Available at: <https://theconversation.com/hundreds-of-fish-species-including-many-that-humans-eat-are-consuming-plastic-154634>

Readfearn, G., 2020. Deadliest plastics: bags and packaging biggest marine life killers, study finds. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/14/deadliest-plastics-bags-and-packaging-biggest-marine-life-killers-study-finds>

Whiting, K., 2018. This is how long everyday plastic items last in the ocean. [online] World Economic Forum. Available at: <https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/11/chart-of-the-day-this-is-how-long-everyday-plastic-items-last-in-the-ocean/>