“To unpathed waters, undreamed shores…
One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never.” -William Shakespeare
Introduction - Interrelated Issues
The United Nations has proclaimed this ‘the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development’ to support efforts to reverse the cycle of decline in ocean health worldwide. However, all successful change is driven by awareness.
The level of awareness regarding marine pollution issues varies, and differs, from macro to micro to the holistic. The climate crisis and ocean acidification, oil and plastic pollution, commercial fishing and ghost nets, mangrove and coral loss, are all interrelated.
Plastics are becoming a significant driver of the climate crisis. They are in fact, the same problem. It is past time to start connecting them, so the environmental community can focus our actions to solve the issues together. The more plastic we make, the more fossil fuels we need, the more we exacerbate climate change.
By 2050, when plastic production is expected to have tripled, plastic will be responsible for up to 13% of our planet's total carbon budget, and equal to the emissions of more than over 600 power stations.
Climate Crisis - Ocean Acidification
The ocean is both a heat and carbon sink. The rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is driving up sea surface temperatures (SST) and causing ocean acidification. Ocean acidification has been called the evil twin of climate change.
Although warming and acidification are different phenomena, they interact to the detriment of marine ecosystems, especially coral. The warming of the ocean is responsible for coral bleaching, exacerbated by acidification, which decrease coral growth and structural integrity.
Oil - Plastic
Petrochemicals used to make plastic, now account for 14% of oil use, and are expected to drive half of oil demand growth. Plastic directly impacts a host of marine animals and habitats and can take hundreds of years to break down. As it does, sunlight and heat cause the plastic to release powerful greenhouse gases, leading to an alarming feedback loop. As our climate changes, the planet gets hotter, the plastic breaks down into more methane and ethylene, increasing the rate of climate change, and so perpetuating the cycle.
According to the Plastic Waste Makers Index, 130 million metric tons of single-use plastics were thrown away around the world, with 35% burned, 31% buried in managed landfills and 19% dumped directly on land or into the ocean.
There is now 5.25 trillion macro and micro pieces of plastic in our ocean & 46,000 pieces in every square mile of ocean, weighing up to 269,000 tonnes. Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic makes their way into our oceans. The latest research states 11 million metric tons of plastic enter our ocean annually, up from 8 million metric tons, in addition to the estimated 150 million metric tons already circulating our marine environments.
Microplastics - Microfibers - Nanoplastics
Microplastics are plastics less than 5mm. Primary Microplastics are manufactured microbeads, capsules, fibers or pellets. Secondary Microplastics are the result of larger pieces of plastic breaking down. This occurs when plastic debris is exposed to sunlight and the plastic begins to weather and fragment.
As if the distribution of microplastics throughout the environment wasn’t bad enough, it turns out they continue to breakdown to ever smaller microfibers and nanoplastic particles. While microplastic distribution varies from coast to coast, from leeward and windward sides to currents and tides. But, based on various studies, every 2.2lbs of beach sand contain 250 microplastic fragments on average.
Not everyone is aware that plastic, including synthetic fabrics, are made from fossil fuels, primary fracked natural gas. So, the average consumer is generating both extra carbon emissions and microplastics with their clothing and single-use plastics.
Synthetic fabrics shed large amounts of plastic microfibers, when manufactured, washed, and even just worn contribute up to 35% of the primary plastic polluting the ocean.
Pollution - Toxins
Marine plastics and microplastics have been shown to carry harmful bacteria, as well as absorb toxic chemicals. In addition to existing chemicals of concern (CoCs) associated with plastic debris, microplastics in the ocean also accumulate persistent organic pollutants (POPs).
While BPA was banned in most plastic, now Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a Chemical of Concern (CoCs). Because plastic microfibers are rougher and have greater surface area than microplastics, there is more area for toxic substances to adhere.
When corals encounter plastic, the likelihood of disease outbreak increases from 4% to 89%. That means corals that come into contact with plastic are 20 times more likely to get sick than those that don't.
Coral exposed to pollutants such as excess nutrients from runoff, microplastics, and/or sunscreen chemicals, experience significant stress, nutrient uptake issues, reproduction impacts, and direct impact on reef health – already responsible for 50% decline.
Commercial fishing - Ghost Nets
“While there is hardly another species on earth that evokes so much human fascination and empathy, [whales and] dolphins have become a symbol or microcosm of our deteriorating relationship with the Earth, particularly its seas and oceans.” -Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan
Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDF) or “Ghost gear” is any fishing gear that is abandoned, lost or discarded in marine environments. This includes fishing nets, long lines, fish traps, lobster pots or any other human-made device used to catch marine animals.
An estimated 640,000 tons of fishing gear are lost or discarded in the ocean annually, known as ghost gear or ghost nets. 870 nets were recovered in the U.S. last year and contained more than 32,000 marine mammals, most entangled and drowned.
Modern fishing gear discarded in the ocean is made of durable plastic, this gear can continue killing marine life for decades or even centuries, as well as damage sensitive marine habitats, such as coral reefs.
Coral - Mangroves
An increase in global surface temperature has led to unprecedented mass coral bleaching events, combined with growing local pressures, such as Warming oceans cause corals to expel symbiotic algae, known as coral bleaching, which can be exacerbated by excess nutrient runoff. Bleached coral is under stress, with increased chance of mortality, impacted by acidification, microplastics, and sunscreen chemicals which have made coral reefs one of the most threatened ecosystems on Earth.
According to UNESCO, the coral reefs in all 29 reef-containing World Heritage sites would cease to exist by the end of this century if we continue to emit greenhouse gases under a business-as-usual scenario.
Mangrove forests make up one of the most productive and biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. A mangrove refers to a tidal swamp ecosystem found in tropical deltas, estuaries, lagoons or islands, and the characteristic tree species populating this ecosystem. Their dense roots help bind and build soils. The complex mangrove root systems filter nitrates, phosphates and other pollutants from the water, improving the water quality flowing from rivers and streams into the estuarine and ocean environment. Despite their importance, mangroves are disappearing at a global loss rate of 1–2% per year, and the loss rate reached 35% during the last 20 years.
Mangroves have been shown to sequester ten times the carbon of terrestrial forests and lower ocean acidification in adjacent tropical waters, which could be the answer to helping save coral.
Blue Carbon - Protection, Restoration, and Rewilding
Blue carbon is the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows. Protection, Restoration, and Rewilding are approaches for the conservation and restoration of these critical marine ecosystems which can sequester and store more carbon per unit area than terrestrial forests, and are now being recognized for their role in mitigating climate change.
Conclusion - Holistic Approach
The burning of fossil fuels is causing the climate crisis, while the ocean attempts to regulate the atmospheric carbon warming, the ocean becomes warmer and more acidic, ocean acidification. Plastic, a byproduct of oil, is major component of marine pollution, due to lowered recycling rates and improper waste management.
Plastic pollution includes macro-plastic like commercial fishing equipment and microplastics as plastics break into smaller components, including toxic chemicals. Plastic Microfibers originate from commercial fishing or ghost nets and synthetic clothing. These ghost nets and microplastics both kill marine life and damage critical habitat, like coral. Coral bleaching and loss, due to the warmer and more acidic ocean is being exacerbated by pollution. Natural carbon sequestering by mangroves could mitigate coral loss, but they too are being destroyed.
The climate crisis and ocean acidification, oil and plastic pollution, overfishing and ghost nets, mangrove and coral loss, are all interrelated. It is past time to start connecting them, so the environmental community can focus our actions holistically to solve the issues together.
Sacred Possessiond dba Wet Tribe - Tide to the Ocean