How Are Microplastics Affecting Food Chains in the Pacific Ocean?

How are microplastics affecting food chains in the Pacific Ocean? During the 1990’s the science community was made aware of large areas called gyres made up of tiny bits of plastic gathering together to create what is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. You may wonder, “how did the trash even get into the ocean?” The answer is from sea voyaging vessels and offshore waste. A study published in the journal “Environmental Research” in 2008 stated that 44 percent of all seabirds have eaten plastic and 270 other marine animals are negatively impacted. This plastic can impair the digestive tract and pass on toxins such as PBC and DDT absorbed from seawater to the animal that consumes it, this includes humans as we consume marine life. The toxins stay within the body cells of the consumer (biomagnification) and can eventually pass through food chains cause birth defects and cancer in the consumers. The food web illustrated below is a simplified version of one found within the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Illustration by Jay Rasgorskek for Science Friday Use the food web to answer questions 1-4. 1. A small fish consumes zooplankton which has consumed microplastics. How will the small fish be impacted? WWW.SCIENCEFRIDAY.COM By Educator Collaborator Amy Philyaw Continued from the previous page. Remember to use the food web for reference. 2. What will happen to the whale and turtle population if the fish population begins to die out from the plastics ingested? 3. Biomagnification is more significant in the whale and human population than in the fish or plankton population. How will this potentially have a more significant impact on these populations? 4. Describe an example where a person who lives in California could be impacted by the microplastics in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and biomagnification. WWW.SCIENCEFRIDAY.COM By Educator Collaborator Amy Philyaw .

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An Assessment Report on Microplastics
An Assessment Report on Microplastics This document was prepared by B Stevens, North Carolina Coastal Federation Table of Contents What are Microplastics? 2 Where Do Microplastics Come From? 3 Primary Sources 3 Secondary Sources 5 What are the Consequences of Microplastics? 7 Marine Ecosystem Health 7 Water Quality 8 Human Health 8 What Policies/Practices are in Place to Regulate Microplastics? 10 Regional Level 10 Outer Banks, North Carolina 10 Other United States Regions 12 State Level 13 Country Level 14 United States 14 Other Countries 15 International Level 16 Conventions 16 Suggested World Ban 17 International Campaigns 18 What Solutions Already Exist? 22 Washing Machine Additives 22 Faucet Filters 23 Advanced Wastewater Treatment 24 Plastic Alternatives 26 What Should Be Done? 27 Policy Recommendations for North Carolina 27 Campaign Strategy for the North Carolina Coastal Federation 27 References 29 1 What are Microplastics? The category of ‘plastics’ is an umbrella term used to describe synthetic polymers made from either fossil fuels (petroleum) or biomass (cellulose) that come in a variety of compositions and with varying characteristics. These polymers are then mixed with different chemical compounds known as additives to achieve desired properties for the plastic’s intended use (OceanCare, 2015). Plastics as litter in the oceans was first reported in the early 1970s and thus has been accumulating for at least four decades, although when first reported the subject drew little attention and scientific studies focused on entanglements, ‘ghost fishing’, and ingestion (Andrady, 2011). Today, about 60-90% of all marine litter is plastic-based (McCarthy, 2017), with the total amount of plastic waste in the oceans expected to increase as plastic consumption also increases and there remains a lack of adequate reduce, reuse, recycle, and waste management tactics across the globe (GreenFacts, 2013).
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Ocean Currents and the Pacific Garbage Patch
ocean currents and the Pacific Garbage Patch photo: Scripps Institution of Oceanography The image above shows a net tow sample from the Pacific Garbage Patch. The sample contains small fish and many small pieces of plastic. The Garbage Patch is primarily composed of this small plastic “confetti” suspended throughout the surface water of the North Pacific Gyre, and is not a island of trash as suggested by some media outlets. The region where the trash converges in the center of the North Pacific Gyre, in a region where surface currents are weak and convergent, thus concentrating large amounts of trash in an area estimated to be close to the size of Texas. With this slide I often show a video clip about the Garbage Patch. Although the links may change, here is one from ABC that I’ve used several times: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFMW8srq0Qk this video is a bit over the top but it gets the point across. There is additional information from Scripps Institution of Oceanography SEAPLEX experiment: http://sio.ucsd.edu/Expeditions/Seaplex/ and several videos on youtube.com by searching the phrase “SEAPLEX” Pacific garbage patch tiny plastic bits • the worlds largest dump? • filled with tiny plastic “confetti” large plastic debris from the garbage patch photo: Scripps Institution of Oceanography little jellyfish photo: Scripps Institution of Oceanography These are some of the things you find in the Garbage Patch. The large pieces of plastic, such as bottles, breakdown into tiny particles. Sometimes animals get caught in large pieces of floating trash: photo: NOAA photo: NOAA photo: Scripps Institution of Oceanography How do plants and animals interact with small small pieces of plastic? fish larvae growing on plastic Trash in the ocean can cause various problems for the organisms that live there.
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Litter in Our Waterways – Factsheet
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch Progression
Great Pacific Garbage Patch Progression: 1. What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? 2. How? Throwback to beginning of plastics. 3. Fracking and Oil to get materials for plastic 4. Consequences of fracking for oil and minerals (show the oil spill that happened Friday) 5. Explain the short lifecycle of plastic, disposable 6. Microbeads 7. Where is AWAY? Landfills, oceans, etc. 8. Doesn’t degrade just smaller pieces, ocean slurry zone. 9. Blocks food for phytoplankton, becomes food for larger fish and whales. 10. Consequences of consumption of plastic chemicals/cancer, birth defects. a. Accumulate in fatty tissue, concentrated in humans, b. PCB and DDT attach onto the plastic when they’re in the ocean together. c. PCB is a lubricant used in electricity conductors and will take thousands of years to break down. Language only lasts for 1 thousand. d. DDT was an agrochemical used 40’s-60’s and then banned, but previous uses ran off of soil into water where it still is. Bugs became resistant too. 11. How to help and get back on track/reduse, reuse, recycle. 12. Designs in progress for this problem 13. Our responsibilities as a designer for the future, design for 10 future generations. Images: http://i2.wp.com/savethewater.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/1.jpg http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/files/2016/04/thootpaste.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Microplastics_impact_on_biological_com munities.png https://plastictides.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/10035153466_dfdd13d962_z.jpg http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/embed-lg/public/2014/04/22/2014/
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Reading Handout: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
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Storm Water Utility
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Lesson #2 by Dr Grant Jones Ocean Crusaders New Zealand
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Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Great Pacific Garbage Patch National Geographic Resource Library | Encyclopedic Entry The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in the ocean, seas, and other large bodies of water. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Also known as the Pacific trash vortex, the garbage patch is actually two distinct collections of debris bounded by the massive North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Map by NOAA Great Pacific Garbage Patch The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a huge area of marine debris. Marine debris is garbage in the ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the world's biggest area of marine debris. It is in the North Pacific Ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch stretches from the West Coast of North America to Japan. It is made up of two parts. One is the Western Garbage Patch, near Japan. The other is the Eastern Garbage Patch, between Hawaii and California. Strong ocean currents carry marine debris into the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Once there, the trash builds up over time. Plastics are the biggest problem. They do not wear down completely. They only break into smaller and smaller pieces. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is mostly tiny bits of plastic. These small pieces are called microplastics. They cannot always be seen. Often, they just make the water look like a cloudy soup. Larger things, like fishing nets or shoes, are mixed into this soup. It doesn't get any better beneath the surface of the water.
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Governing a Continent of Trash: the Global Politics of Oceanic Pollution
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LITTER in the DERWENT Litter on the Derwent Estuary Foreshore
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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Gyre Plastic : Science, Circulation and the Matter of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/21w9h64q Author De Wolff, Kim Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Gyre Plastic: Science, Circulation and the Matter of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Communication by Kim De Wolff Committee in charge: Professor Chandra Mukerji, Chair Professor Joseph Dumit Professor Kelly Gates Professor David Serlin Professor Charles Thorpe 2014 Copyright Kim De Wolff, 2014 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Kim De Wolff is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2014 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ........................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ....................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ............................................................................................................ vi Acknowledgements .................................................................................................... ix Vita ............................................................................................................................
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Plastics: Floating Ethical Flotsam
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