The plastic continent: An alarming ecological disaster.

Hello Steemit! This time I want to talk you about the plastic continent that is in the Pacific Ocean, a huge floating island formed by plastic waste, which worries the international scientific community. In this Post, I will also tell you about the origin and consequences of this ecological disaster. I Hope you like it!

Plastic in the oceans

It is well known that in the last decades polyolefins have become great pollutants of the planet, millions of tons of plastic reach the depths of the oceans every year, being one of the most serious pollution problems.

Pollution in the Pacific Ocean

The properties that we like most of the plastic are the most harmful in the oceans, since these are resistant to degradation, being considered bioinerts, that is to say, highly resistant to the attack of microorganisms, reason why they remain in the environment. In addition, over time, tiny particles favored by erosion, are suspended in the water to become part of the fish feed or go to the seabed by concentrating organic pollutants.

Ecological disaster

One of the biggest ecological disasters caused by plastic would be discovered in 1997 by Charles Moore who sailed on his sailboat from Hawaii to California when, diverting from his original route, he found floating in the water a row of plastic bottles, containers, bags of garbage, among others, that formed a continent of plastic of incalculable dimensions. In 1988 in an article published by the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), scientists suggested the existence of this continent of plastic or floating island.

Pollution in the Oceans

The plastic continent consists of two large masses of waste, one south-west of Japan and the other north-west of Hawaii, which began to form in the 1950s by the confluence at that point of the North Pacific vortex current with the trade winds of the south, that move in opposite directions. This results in a whirlpool that hoover the debris around, causing them to accumulate in the middle, preventing plastic waste from spreading to the coasts.

The origin of these wastes comes mostly from land areas close through rivers, sewage and beaches where these wastes are dumped by coastal tourism. While the other part is associated with ships (nets, pots, etc.) and other offshore platforms. Despite the big dimensions of the plastic continent this is not visible through satellite photographs, since much of the waste is not floating on the surface, but are in the form of particles suspended in the ocean.

The impact on the natural marine environment

The impact on the natural marine environment is one of the main problems caused by this plastic island, since some plastic particles are produced by erosion can reach the size of the plankton and be ingested by fish, this being a route of entry of waste into the food chain. Every year, thousands of birds and marine mammals are affected by the ingestion of these particles or by being trapped between the plastics. A study by Scripps researchers shows that 9% of the fish that were sampled contained plastic debris in their stomachs. The study estimates that fish in the intermediate ocean depths of the North Pacific Ocean eat thousands of tons of plastic a year.

Pollution in the Oceans

Finding a solution to this problem is not so simple. One of the aspects to consider besides the resistance to degrade of the plastic is the millimeter size of the fragments of plastics that do not allow its cleaning without having a negative impact on microscopic oceanic organisms. Numerous investigations are now being carried out with different bacteria capable of using this material as food and, thus, degrading it. Other research that is carried out, is the creation of biodegradable materials that can prevent the accumulation of these residues.

Finally, we can say that the plastic continent is an ecological disaster with a high impact on the oceans that has been caused by humans. It is up to us to be aware of the indiscriminate use of plastic, since as we saw the pollution caused by these materials is a damage difficult to repair.

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References:

Doyle, M. J., Watson, W., Bowlin, N. M., & Sheavly, S. B. (2011). Plastic particles in coastal pelagic ecosystems of the Northeast Pacific ocean. Marine Environmental Research, 71(1), 41-52.

Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., ... & Law, K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771.

Morét-Ferguson, S., Law, K. L., Proskurowski, G., Murphy, E. K., Peacock, E. E., & Reddy, C. M. (2010). The size, mass, and composition of plastic debris in the western North Atlantic Ocean. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 60(10), 1873-1878.