Marine Litter: Time to Clean up Our Act © Algalita

Marine Litter: Time To Clean Up Our Act © Algalita

Marine litter is a growing global problem which poses an increasingly serious threat to the environment, the economy and health. To rid our coasts and seas of marine litter, we need to understand its various sources, forms and impacts and come up with imaginative, concrete and ambitious solutions. Meanwhile, we must all reﬂ ect on what we choose to buy and discard to reduce the amount of litter ending up at sea.

K. Falkenberg Director-General for Environment European Commission Defi nition Marine litter consists of items that have been deliberately discarded, unintentionally lost, or transported by winds and rivers, into the sea and on beaches. It mainly consists of plastics, wood, metals, glass, rubber, clothing and paper. Land-based sources account for up to 80% of marine litter – these include tourism, sewage and illegal or poorly man- aged landfi lls. The main sea-based sources are shipping and fi shing. Impacts Marine litter is not just unsightly. Large fragments on beaches can cause injuries. Sewage-related and medical waste may be a risk to human health. There are also economic consequences such as the loss of income from tourism, the cost of removing litter from beaches and harbours and the damage to ships and fi shing gear. Many marine species such as seals, whales and marine turtles become entangled in marine lit- © ThinkStock ter, causing suff ocation, strangulation and drown- ing. Marine litter can also restrict movement, reduce the ability to catch food and avoid preda- tors, or cause lacerations and infections. The most frequent cause of entanglement is discarded fi shing gear; other causes include ‘six-pack’ rings and balloon ribbons. Another serious problem aff ecting many species of whales, birds and fi sh is the ingestion of marine debris, particularly plastics. Mistaken as food or ingested accidentally during feeding, debris may block the digestive tract or cause inter- nal injuries and lead to death. It can also impair digestion and stunt growth as well as reproduction rates. There is increasing concern that, along with plastics, animals could be ingesting persistent or-

© Algalita ganic pollutants (POPs) and toxic compounds such as medicines. Marine debris can also cause damage to coral reefs and change the struc- ture of the seabed, aff ecting the plants and animals that live there. Scope, location and distribution Littered beaches are an obvious eyesore but marine litter is found in every ocean of the planet and in places as remote as Antarctica. A large part of this litter is visible only to divers or when it is fi shed out. More worryingly, plastics, which account for the large majority of marine litter, do not biode- grade but fragment into ever-smaller pieces before turning into microscopic particles of ‘plastic dust’. With the production of plastic increasing rapidly, small fragments like these are likely to multiply. Invisible to the naked eye, these microscopic particles mingle with phytoplankton and simply cannot be scooped out of the oceans. Garbage patches, plastic soup and mermaid tears Far out at sea, at the centre of huge circular motions of currents, known as gyres, marine debris gathers to form increasingly large “garbage patches”. While the most well known is the Great North Pacifi c Garbage Patch, stretching over hundreds of miles, circular currents – and probably, similar patches – exist in every ocean. Far from looking like a fl oating dumpsite, they contain the occasional large debris but most of the litter consists of plastic fragments less than a centimetre long fl oating below the surface. In the Great North Pacifi c Garbage Patch, these fragments sometimes reach concentrations six times higher than zooplankton, turning the sea into a plastic soup. Known as mermaid tears, the plastic fragments are small enough to be ingested by fi lter-feeding animals, such as whales, shellfi sh or fl amingos. While some of the fragments come from discarded plastic items, raw material from the plastic industry accounts for a large proportion. The impact of microscopic plastic particles on marine fauna and the marine food web is still insuffi ciently known but recent studies give cause for concern. During production, chemicals are frequently added to plastics. Some of these have well-documented toxic eff ects on humans. Along with tissues and metals, plastics are also known to absorb persistent organic pollutants (POPs) from contaminated seawater. More research is urgently needed on the potential con- tamination of the food web by toxic chemicals and POPs, and on its consequences on human consumption.

Need for action Marine litter aﬀ ects all of us. It threatens biodiversity, our health and our economy. Its multiple causes, sources, forms and impacts call for global coordination, extensive research, creative, collaborative approaches and urgent action. Thanks to the United Nations Environment Programme, regional sea conventions and various NGOs, some initia- tives are already under way. These range from international beach cleaning days to regional research projects and highly visible awareness-raising stunts. Every single gesture counts – including the choice of individual consumers to refuse single-use plastic bags. Getting the measure of marine pollution In an innovative project to measure marine pollution in the North Sea, the OSPAR regional sea con- vention for the North Atlantic has been inspecting the stomach contents of Northern Fulmars found dead on the coastline. Commonly found in this region, the Fulmar is a bird that only feeds at sea and usually does not regurgitate indigestible items. In the North Sea almost every Fulmar has plastic in their stomach, with an average of around 0.3 of a gram of plastic per bird. Fulmars beached in the most polluted parts of the southern North Sea have double this amount. It is impossible to prove that this represents harm to Fulmars. However, in a human stomach, it would take 60 grams of plastic to reach a similar proportion. If this amount of litter was ingested by humans around the southern North Sea, ambient levels of litter would certainly be considered harmful and immediate action would be taken. © JA van Franeker - IMARES © JA van Franeker

At European level, the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) adopted in June 2008, aims to achieve good environmental status for all marine waters by 2020. Each Member State is required, in cooperation with other Member States and non-EU countries within a marine region, to develop a strategy for their marine waters. This must contain a detailed assessment of the state of the environment, a deﬁ nition of “good environmental status” at regional level and the estab- lishment of clear environmental targets and monitoring pro- grammes. On 1 September 2010, the European Commission adopted a decision outlining the criteria to be used by Member States to assess the environmental status of their seas. Several of these criteria relate to marine litter. The MSFD working group on marine litter has underlined both the seriousness of the issue and the urgent need for further coordinated research to ensure a common approach to monitoring and mitigation. Areas for research include impacts on marine life, degradation processes at sea, the study of litter-related micro-particles and chemicals associated with litter, factors inﬂ uencing the distribution and densities of litter at sea, and the assessment and monitoring of socio-economic harm. If we want to rid our seas and coasts of marine litter it is high time for all players – scientists, NGOs, industry, policy- makers and members of the public at large – to sit around the table and come up with innovative solutions.