Plague Of Plastic Chokes The Sea

This is part of a five part series done by the L.A. Times with multimedia presentations and stories that explain the current degradation our seas are going through. I highly recommend it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-oceans-series,0,7842752.special
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http://www.latimes.com/news/local/oceans/la-me-ocean2aug02,0,3130914.story

PART FOUR
ALTERED OCEANS
Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas
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On Midway Atoll, 40% of albatross chicks die, their bellies full of trash. Swirling masses of drifting debris pollute remote beaches and snare wildlife.
By Kenneth R. Weiss, Times Staff Writer

August 2, 2006

MIDWAY ATOLL -- The albatross chick jumped to its feet, eyes alert and focused. At 5 months, it stood 18 inches tall and was fully feathered except for the fuzz that fringed its head.

All attitude, the chick straightened up and clacked its beak at a visitor, then rocked back and dangled webbed feet in the air to cool them in the afternoon breeze.

The next afternoon, the chick ignored passersby. The bird was flopped on its belly, its legs splayed awkwardly. Its wings drooped in the hot sun. A few hours later, the chick was dead.

John Klavitter, a wildlife biologist, turned the bird over and cut it open with a knife. Probing its innards with a gloved hand, he pulled out a yellowish sac — its stomach.

Out tumbled a collection of red, blue and orange bottle caps, a black spray nozzle, part of a green comb, a white golf tee and a clump of tiny dark squid beaks ensnared in a tangle of fishing line.

"This is pretty typical," said Klavitter, who is stationed at the atoll for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "We often find cigarette lighters, bucket handles, toothbrushes, syringes, toy soldiers — anything made out of plastic."

It's all part of a tide of plastic debris that has spread throughout the world's oceans, posing a lethal hazard to wildlife, even here, more than 1,000 miles from the nearest city.

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Of the 500,000 albatross chicks born here each year, about 200,000 die, mostly from dehydration or starvation. A two-year study funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency showed that chicks that died from those causes had twice as much plastic in their stomachs as those that died for other reasons.

The atoll is littered with decomposing remains, grisly wreaths of feathers and bone surrounding colorful piles of bottle caps, plastic dinosaurs, checkers, highlighter pens, perfume bottles, fishing line and small Styrofoam balls. Klavitter has calculated that albatross feed their chicks about 5 tons of plastic a year at Midway.

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Nearly 90% of floating marine litter is plastic — supple, durable materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene, Styrofoam, nylon and saran.

end of excerpt. Much more at the link.
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Reading the beginning of this article made me cry, because it is we who killed that chick. It is we who are continuing to kill this planet and in turn then killing ourselves. I don't understand why we continue to do this. Where is our moral compass as a species? And will we ever be able to get out from under the mountain of garbage we have created? No bill signed into law is going to do this for us. We have to also take it upon ourselves. I am just heartsick reading this and believing that will not happen in time.

i guess nature will have the last laugh and, believe in darwin or not, life as we know it will probably be opted out and a new version that can live in the chemical soup weve created will opt in.

Along with Jeremy Jackson's video lecture on the state of the oceans should both be required viewing for anyone who maintains that any increase in human activity can be rendered benign.

It is easy to wrap your sandwich in cheap plastic.

It is easy to grab a bottle and twist the top, rather than brewing some tea.

It is easy to forget.

It is easy to ignore.

It is easy to sit there and do nothing.

Peace.

Peace.

break up the plastic so small it is breathable. not kidding. read a study on it. don't have the link. it was a UK story.

I don't find it hard to believe that beachfront erosion could also do this.

many people have no sense of littering. They thow their stuff into the water.

and walking home from the store last night I saw a shocking amount of litter on my neighbor's lawn. The teenagers that live there (you know the kind - dad buys them expensive cars, they drive around with stereos blaring, racing up and down streets)obviously were having a tete a tete with friends, drinking sodas and eating fast food, and when they were done they just threw all their plastic bottles and wrappers all over the lawn and sidewalk. This is in Encino.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encino,_Los_Angeles,_California

People are PIGS.

Even in my own town we see plastic bottles, the plastic rings they put around six packs and all kinds of trash littering our bay. And on certain days the smell from it is unbearable and when the tide goes out you see all the garbage it leaves behind. People think this planet is one huge garbage can. I even took it upon myself to take a pail and shovel and go up the side streets to pick up trash because it was getting so voluminous. People just satisfy their urges and thinking once they throw it wherever they throw it it is no longer their responsbility as if it just vanishes into space. So in essence those that do that aren't just pigs, they are ignorant pigs.

If we were pigs, we would be domesticated, forced into pens and cages all day, and bred in ridiculously large numbers for the express purpose of the productive capacity of our body as ordered by up on high so as to maximize profits.

Wait...I thought...we were...wait...no...wait...

to a tee.

:rofl:

I was unaware of the connecting current nor of the Western Garbage Patch, among other things.