Debris collected on beaches on Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals over one month. The French Frigate Shoals ( Hawaiian: Kānemilohai) is the largest Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Items collected were 288 miscellaneous plastic pieces, thirteen fishing floats, thirty-three plastic bottles, two toys, a lightstick, thirty-four bottle caps, a lighter, two balls, five shoes, three fluorescent lightbulbs, three regular bulbs, nineteen glass bottles, one metal flask, two baskets, twenty-one pieces of rope, a three-square-foot net ball and a large piece of styrofoam.

Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created waste that has found itself floating in a lake, sea, ocean or waterway. WASTE is a Peer-to-peer and Friend-to-friend protocol and software application developed by Justin Frankel at Nullsoft in 2003 that features A lake (from Latin lacus) is a Terrain feature (or Physical feature) a body of Liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the This article is about the body of water For other uses see SEA and Seas. An ocean (from Greek, ''Okeanos'' (Oceanus) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the Hydrosphere. A waterway is any navigable Body of water. These include Rivers Lakes Seas Oceans and Canals In order for a waterway Oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the centre of gyres and on coastlines,^[1] frequently washing aground where it is known as beach litter. A gyre is any manner of swirling Vortex. It is often used to describe large-scale Wind or Ocean currents. The coast is defined as the part of the land adjoining or near the Ocean.

Some forms of marine debris, such as harmless driftwood, occur naturally, and human activities have been adding similar material into the oceans for thousands of years. Driftwood is Wood that has been washed onto a shore or beach of a sea or river by the action of winds tides waves or man Only recently, however, with the advent of plastic, has our influence become an issue—plastic marine debris does not biodegrade. Plastic is the general common term for a wide range of synthetic or semisynthetic organic solid materials suitable for the manufacture of industrial products Biodegradation is the process by which organic substances are broken down by the enzymes produced by living organisms

Waterborne plastic is both unsightly and dangerous; posing a serious threat to fish, seabirds, marine reptiles, and marine mammals, as well as to boats and coastal habitations. Fish are aquatic Vertebrate animals that are typically ectothermic (previously Cold-blooded) covered with scales, and equipped with two Seabirds are Birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment Marine reptiles are Reptiles which have become secondarily adapted for an aquatic or semi-aquatic life in a marine environment. Marine mammals are a diverse group of roughly 120 species of Mammal that are primarily Ocean -dwelling or depend on the ocean for food ^[2] Ocean dumping, accidental container spillages, and wind-blown landfill waste are all contributing to this growing problem.

Types of debris

Marine debris on the Hawaiian coast

A wide variety of anthropogenic artefacts can become marine debris; items such as plastic bags, syringes and other medical waste, buoys, rope, glass bottles and plastic bottles, cigarette lighters, beverage cans, styrofoam, lost fishing line and nets, and various wastes from cruise ships and oil rigs. The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the Anthropogenic effects processes objects or materials are those that are derived from Human activities as opposed to those occurring in Natural environments without A plastic bag or pouch is a type of flexible Packaging made of thin flexible plastic film A syringe is a simple piston Pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube A rope is a length of Fibers twisted or Braided together to improve strength for pulling and Connecting. Glass bottles are Bottles created from Glass. They can vary in size considerably but are most commonly found in sizes ranging between about 10ml and 5 Litres A plastic bottle is a container constructed of Plastic, with a neck that is narrower than its body and an opening at the top A lighter is a portable device used to create a Flame. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with lighter fluid (usually Naphtha or liquid Butane A beverage can (or drinks can) is most often an Aluminum Can manufactured to hold a single serving of a Beverage. Styrofoam is a trademark for polystyrene Thermal insulation, a material manufactured by Dow Chemical Company. Ghost nets are Fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen Cruise ships generate Sewage, Greywater, Hazardous wastes oily Bilge water ballast water solid waste and air pollutants An oil platform or oil rig is a large structure used to house workers and machinery needed to drill and/or extract oil and Natural gas through wells Plastic comprises over 80% of all debris, a component that has been rapidly accumulating since the end of World War II, as it does not biodegrade. Biodegradation is the process by which organic substances are broken down by the enzymes produced by living organisms ^[3]

Nurdles

A nurdle is a plastic pellet typically under 5mm in diameter. A nurdle, also called a pre-production plastic pellet or plastic resin pellet, is a Plastic pellet typically under 5mm in diameter They may be released directly into the environment (as a spilt industrial raw material or a cosmetic exfoliant), or through the physical weathering of large plastic debris. Exfoliation involves the removal of the oldest dead Skin cells on the skin's outermost surface and has been used for many years to help maintain the skin Weathering is the decomposition of earth rocks, Soils and their Minerals through direct contact with the planet's Atmosphere. Nurdles are a major contributor to marine debris and can cause starvation to any marine wildlife that ingests them, as well as potentially releasing toxins. They are also known as mermaids' tears, a pre-production plastic pellets or plastic resin pellets. ^[4]

Source of debris

Travel of the Friendly Floatees

It has been estimated that container ships lose over 10,000 containers at sea each year (usually during a storm). Friendly Floatees are Container ships are Cargo ships that carry all of their load in truck-size containers in a technique called Containerization. Containerization (or containerisation) is a system of Intermodal freight transport Cargo Transport using standard ISO containers ^[5] One famous spillage occurred in the Pacific Ocean in 1992, when thousands of rubber ducks and other toys went overboard during a storm. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions Friendly Floatees are The toys have since been found all over the world; Curtis Ebbesmeyer and other scientists have used the incident to gain a better understanding of ocean currents. Curtis Charles Ebbesmeyer is an American Oceanographer who in retirement has studied the movement of flotsam. An ocean current is continuous directed movement of Ocean water. Similar incidents have happened, with the same potential to track currents, such as when Hansa Carrier dropped 21 containers (with one notably containing buoyant Nike shoes). The Hansa Carrier is a Container ship. On 27 May 1990, en route from Korea to the United States, the ship encountered a ^[6] In 2006, thousands of bags of Doritos chips washed up on the beach at Frisco, North Carolina. Doritos-iljpg|thumb|Mexican Nacho Flavored Doritos Israel (old style]] Doritos (dəˈriːɾoʊz is a brand of flavored Tortilla chips produced since 1966 by the American Frisco is a small Unincorporated community on the Barrier island of Hatteras Island, between the villages of Buxton and Hatteras. ^[7] In 2007, MSC Napoli was beached in the English Channel, and dropped hundreds of containers, most of which washed up on the Devon coastline. Kyrill While en route from Belgium to Portugal, on January 18 2007, during European windstorm Kyrill, severe gale Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name ^[8]

Though it was originally assumed that most oceanic marine waste stemmed directly from ocean dumping, it is now thought that around four fifths^[9] of the oceanic debris is from rubbish blown seaward from landfills, and washed seaward by storm drains. For other uses see Water treatment and Land reclamation. A landfill, also known as a dump (and historically as A storm drain, storm sewer ( US) stormwater drain ( Australia and New Zealand) or surface water system ( UK) ^[2] An example of this would be the 1987 Syringe Tide, whereby medical wastes washed ashore in New Jersey, after having blown from the Fresh Kills Landfill. Syringe Tide refers to a period during 1987-88 in New Jersey, where significant amounts of Medical waste and raw garbage washed up onto a stretch of Atlantic The Fresh Kills Landfill on the New York City borough of Staten Island in the United States, was formerly the largest Landfill in

Legality of ocean dumping

A spray-painted sign above a sewer in Colorado Springs, Colorado warning people to not pollute the local stream by dumping. The City of Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the County seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, Environmental dumping is the practice of transfrontier shipment of waste ( Household waste, industrial / Nuclear waste, etc

Ocean dumping is the deliberate disposal of wastes at sea, a practice controlled by law.

• The London Convention (1972) – a United Nations agreement to control ocean dumping^[10]
• MARPOL 73/78 – an international convention designed to minimise pollution of the seas, including dumping, oil and exhaust pollution^[11]
• OSPAR Convention (72/74) – legislation to control marine pollution in the north-east Atlantic Ocean around Europe^[12]
• Water Framework Directive (2000) – an EU directive committing member states to make their inland and coastal waters free from human influence^[13]

Law of the United States

• Ocean Dumping Act^[14] (1972), amended by the Ocean Dumping Ban Act (1988)^[15]
• Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act (1972)^[16]

In the United States, the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000^[17] was enacted to help reduce the risk of diseases for users of water from the American coastline and Great Lakes. The Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter 1972 commonly called the " London Convention " or "LC '72" and also The United Nations ( UN) is an International organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, International security Marpol 73/78 is the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution From Ships 1973 as modified by the Protocol of 1978. Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic or OSPAR Convention is the current legislative instrument regulating international The Water Framework Directive (more formally the Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for Community action A directive is a legislative act of the European Union which requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving A Member State of the European Union is any one of the twenty-seven sovereign Nation states that have acceded the European Union (EU since its De facto The Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act or Ocean Dumping Act was one of several key environmental laws passed by the US Congress in 1972. The Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act or Ocean Dumping Act was one of several key environmental laws passed by the US Congress in 1972. Marine Protection Research and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 ( or MPRSA originally authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate ocean dumping of Industrial wastes The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Laurentian Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada–United States border. ^[18] The act authorizes the EPA to award program development and implementation grants to eligible states, territories, tribes, and local governments to support microbiological testing and monitoring of coastal recreational waters that are adjacent to beaches or similar points of access used by the public. Currently, the California Legislature is considering a host of bills designed to reduce the sources of marine debris, following the recommendations of the California Ocean Protection Council. The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U For other uses see Bill. A bill is a proposed new law introduced within a Legislature that has not been ratified, adopted ^[19]

Ownership of debris

Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property can be of consequence within property law, admiralty law, and the law of the sea. In the Common law of Property, personal belongings that have left the possession of their rightful owners without having directly entered the possession of another person are Property law is the area of Law that governs the various forms of Ownership in Real property (land as distinct from personal or movable possessions Admiralty law (also referred to as maritime law) is a distinct body of Law which governs maritime questions and offenses The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ( UNCLOS) also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty is the international agreement that resulted Salvage law has as a basis that a salvor should be rewarded for risking his life and property to rescue the property of another from peril. Marine salvage is the process of rescuing a ship its cargo and sometimes the crew from peril On land the distinction between deliberate and accidental loss led to the concept of a 'treasure trove'. A treasure trove may broadly be defined as an amount of gold silver gemstones money jewellery or any valuable collection found hidden underground or in places such as cellars In the United Kingdom, shipwrecked goods should be reported to a Receiver of Wreck, and if identifiable, they should be returned to their rightful owner. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Receiver of Wreck, a post defined under the Merchant Shipping Act 1995 is an official of the British government whose main task is to process incoming reports ^[20]

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The currents of the North Pacific Gyre spiral inwards

Once waterbourne, debris is far from immobile. Flotsam can be blown by the wind, and follows the flow of ocean currents, often ending up in the middle of oceanic gyres where currents are weakest. An ocean current is continuous directed movement of Ocean water. A gyre is any manner of swirling Vortex. It is often used to describe large-scale Wind or Ocean currents. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one such example of this, comprising of a vast region of the North Pacific Ocean rich with anthropogenic wastes. The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth 's Oceanic divisions Conservative estimates of its size compare it to Texas,^[21] whereas some reckon it closer to the size of Africa. Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. ^[22] The mass of plastic in our oceans may be as high as one hundred million tonnes. This article is about the tonne or metric ton For other tons see Ton. ^[9]

Should any islands be unlucky enough to lie within a gyre, their coastlines will likely be ruined by the waste that inevitably washes ashore. An island (ˈaɪlənd or isle (/ˈaɪl/ is any piece of land that is completely surrounded by water in two dimensions above high tide and isolated from other significant The coast is defined as the part of the land adjoining or near the Ocean. Prime examples of this are Midway^[23] and Hawaii. The State of Hawaii ( or həˈwaɪʔiː Hawaiian: Mokuāina o Hawaii) is a state in the United States located on an Archipelago in the ^[24] Clean-up teams around the world patrol beaches to clean up this environmental threat.

Environmental impact

Remains of an albatross containing ingested flotsam

Many animals that live on or in the sea consume flotsam by mistake, as it often looks similar to their natural prey. The Laysan Albatross, Phoebastria immutabilis, is a large Seabird that ranges across the North Pacific. ^[25] Plastic debris, when bulky or tangled, is difficult to pass, and may become permanently lodged in the digestive tracts of these animals, blocking the passage of food and causing death through starvation or infection. ^[26] Tiny floating particles also resemble zooplankton, which can lead filter feeders to consume them and cause them to enter the ocean food chain. Zooplankton are the Heterotrophic (sometimes detritivorous) type of Plankton. Filter feeders (also known as suspension feeders) are Animals that feed by straining suspended matter and food particles from water typically by passing the water Food chains, also called food networks and/or trophic networks, describe the feeding relationships between species within an Ecosystem. In samples taken from the North Pacific Gyre in 1999 by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, the mass of plastic exceeded that of zooplankton by a factor of six. A gyre is any manner of swirling Vortex. It is often used to describe large-scale Wind or Ocean currents. ^[3] More recently, reports have surfaced that there may now be 30 times more plastic than plankton, the most abundant form of life in the ocean. ^[27]

This turtle is trapped in a ghost net, an abandoned fishing net

Many toxins can be found in plastic materials (where they are used as plasticizers, etc), one of the most harmful being polychlorinated biphenyls, which can leach into the surrounding waters. "Chelonia" redirects here It is also the name of the Superorder uniting turtles tortoises and terrapins ( Testudines) with the "proto-turtle" Ghost nets are Fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen Plasticizers are additives that increase the Plasticity or Fluidity of the material to which they are added these include plastics cement concrete wallboard and Polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCB s are a class of Organic compounds with 1 to 10 Chlorine atoms attached to Biphenyl which is a molecule composed While safety standards are increasing (PCBs were banned in the 1970s), all the plastics produced in the years prior are still circulating in the world's oceans. It has also been suggested that persistent organic pollutants may be collecting and magnifying on the surface of plastic debris, adsorbing permanently to its surface and making oceanic plastic debris far more deadly that it would be on land. Persistent organic pollutants ( POP s are organic compounds that are resistant to environmental degradation through chemical, biological, and photolytic Adsorption is a process that occurs when a gas or liquid Solute accumulates on the surface of a solid or a liquid (adsorbent forming a film of molecules or atoms (the

Ghost nets are fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. Ghost nets are Fishing nets that have been left or lost in the ocean by fishermen They can entangle and kill fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, penguins and other seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, including the occasional human diver. Fish are aquatic Vertebrate animals that are typically ectothermic (previously Cold-blooded) covered with scales, and equipped with two Dolphins are Marine mammals that are closely related to Whales and Porpoises There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera. Sea turtles ( Superfamily Chelonioidea) are Turtles found in all the world's oceans except the Arctic Ocean. Sharks ( Superorder Selachimorpha) are a type of Fish with a full cartilaginous Skeleton and a highly streamlined body The dugong ( Dugong dugon) is a large Marine Mammal which together with the Manatees is one of four living species of the order Sirenia A crocodile is any Species belonging to the family Crocodylidae (sometimes classified instead as the Subfamily Crocodylinae) Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes, family Spheniscidae) are a group of aquatic, flightless Birds living almost Seabirds are Birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment Crabs are decapod Crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" (βραχύ / brachy ^[28]

However, not all anthropogenic artefacts in the oceans do harm. Anthropogenic effects processes objects or materials are those that are derived from Human activities as opposed to those occurring in Natural environments without Iron and concrete do little damage to the environment as they are generally immobile; in fact, they can even be used as scaffolding for the creation of artificial reefs, increasing the biodiversity of a coastal region. An artificial reef is a man-made underwater structure typically built for the purpose of promoting marine life in areas of generally featureless bottom Biodiversity is the variation of Life forms within a given Ecosystem, Biome or for the entire Earth. Entire ships have been deliberately sunk in various attempts to do just that. ^[29]

See also

References

External links

• NOAA Marine Debris Program – US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Marine Debris Abatement – US Environmental Protection Agency
• Marine Research, Education and Restoration – Algalita Marine Research Foundation
• Beach Litter – UK Marine Conservation Society
• Harmful Marine Debris – Australian Government
• The trash vortex – Greenpeace
• High Seas GhostNet Survey – US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Ocean Debris: Habitat for Some, Havoc for Environment, Experts Say – National Geographic
• Rubber Duckies Map The World – CBS News
• Social & Economic Costs of Marine Debris – US NOAA Socioeconomics