
Microplastic pollution in oceans is far worse than feared, say scientists - NeedMoreTea
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/12/microplastic-pollution-in-oceans-is-far-greater-than-thought-say-scientists
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petecooper
I live on the coast in North Cornwall, UK. I lead a group of local beach
cleaners, we meet once a week to pick up beach litter and I have amassed ~2.5
years of data [1] to date.

Microplastic is a concern. Larger-than-microplastic (?macroplastic) is also a
worry, because it degrades into microplastic over time.

Our location [2] means that we don't get the typical beach waste washing up
with the tides, and much of what we gather is fishing industry consumables.
Nylon nets can usually be identified to a given vessel or fleet, but when they
reach EOL they are sometimes shredded at sea -- which turns one net into many
thousands of pieces 5cm / 2" long -- or dumped on known wreck sites.

These sites are not fished by commercial fishing organisations and the nets
become ghost nets, catching the marine life that typically teems on
wrecks…which then dies, degrades, and attracts other feeders, and the process
repeats.

Anecdotally, I've had conversations with people in the industry over the past
few years and it's common for nets to be left in situ once quota is met, since
it's cheaper to replace a net than go over quota in port.

I realise all this isn't directly related to the OP article, but there are
other considerations outside the microplastics generated from cosmetics, etc.

[1]
[https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wDmlyQFluRCyT6m_ndoO...](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wDmlyQFluRCyT6m_ndoOS6MFMvcLCKqngZ5uVktJ4yc/edit#gid=0)

[2]
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Crackington+Haven,+Bude+EX...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Crackington+Haven,+Bude+EX23+0JG,+UK/@50.7408501,-4.6507796,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x486b87be4d219c7f:0xa10f443eb98d2e0!8m2!3d50.7408519!4d-4.63327)

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growlist
I remember years back thinking 'there seems to be so much rubbish in the sea,
oh well, guess its big enough that it doesn't matter'..

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justtopost
That line of thought never occured to me. Everything is finite, why would
throwing trash in the sea not immediately pollute it? Its like those that
never bother to think of where their trash (or 'recycling') actually goes.
(Throwing things 'away'...) My father, a man of few words, summed it up
thusly; Don't shit where you eat.

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blacksmith_tb
The volume of the Earth's oceans[1] is ~1.3B cubic km (or ~320M cubic miles).
So I'd say what's more amazing/appalling is that we have managed to dump so
much plastic into them that it is easily noticeable...

1:
[https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceanwater.html](https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceanwater.html)

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GW150914
The volume is incredible, but I suspect that ignoring most of the depth is
useful for microplastic, which is buoyant. You’ll still have to consider some
depth, vertical mixing will be a factor, but it will still be a fraction of
the total volume.

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honkycat
We are all going to die buried in our own plastic Micky Mouse collectables.

