Hi all, as many of you know I've pretty much focused my life at this point on attempting the mammoth goal of reducing the amount of plastic in our environment by advocacy, policy, and spreading awareness through expedition documentation with the NGO, 5 Gyres.org. About two years ago, I had the chance as a journalist sail across the North Atlantic (with the help of cash donations from some folks who post on the board) and after seeing what I saw out there, thousands miles from land: toothbrushes, laundry baskets, tampon applicators, syringes, shotgun shells, rollerblade wheels, I quit my job and devoted my work and pretty much my life to fighting oceanic plastic pollution. Since then, I've sailed over 20,000 miles in three gyres, seeing plastic in the South Atlantic and The South Pacific Gyres as well. It's been an amazing, and heart wrenching journey all in one.
Here's what I know--- on every beach, everywhere in the world ever sampled, plastic is there. All the continents.
It collects in all major subtropical oceanic gyres.
No one knows how much is out there, but the best we can do to estimate is about 20,000 pieces per square kilometer of ocean surface, conservatively weighing about .5 grams each. There are 315 million square kilometers of ocean surface on planet earth.
Plastic does not biodegrade, it photodegrades, the polymer chains of hydrocarbons are broken by sunlight, but the actual hydrocarbon molecule persists for as long as its chemical half life allows--- which is more time than either you or I can imagine.
Plastic works like a sponge for persistent organic pollutants like Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons, DDT, flame retardants, PCBs, you name it-- it absorbs these chemicals because its a fat based, and these chemicals don't mix with water, but love fats.
Fish eat plastic-- in a very recent study conducted by Scripps in the North Pacific, 9% of mesopelagic fish (aka those that go deep and then come up at night to feed in the epipelagic zone) had ingested plastics. Scripps estimates that these types of base food chain fishes eat between 12k and 24k tons of plastic per year in the North Pacific.
Those chemicals bioaccumulate in their bodies and as predators eat them, and then, and then, these toxins biomagnify up the food chain. The apex predator of that chain is us.
Plastic bags are made of Polyethylene and this, along with Polyproplyne are the two most common types of plastic in the gyres.
I started working on plastic pollution as a volunteer for Surfrider, starting the Ban The Bag campaign in Oregon some four years ago which ultimately was unsuccessful on the state level. Industry has successfully stymied the campaign by saying all that's needed is more recycling. Recycling of plastic actually creates more plastic in the world, not less because 70% virgin content needs to be added to a bag to make a new bag. This is why industry favors this approach, it guarantees metric increases in market share. Making other things out of plastic, even durable goods, just means make a second generation destined for a landfill or the ocean or somewhere in between. It's not the answer.
Next Thursday, at 3pm at Portland City Hall, we are going to ban the bag in Portland. I need your support. I need you to show up and voice your support for the ocean. Regardless of your feelings about politics or politicians championing this cause, I need your help. Portland sits on one of the top five watersheds in the world, The Columbia. What you see in the streets, in the air and on the side of river is gyre bound. We've been using this crap for only about 60 years widespread. When I was kid or when Gaz was a kid there was no plastic on the beach. That is not true now. Now and forever.
Please come and help us pack council chambers. This is about you and me and our quality of life as surfers, and lovers of the ocean. Thanks.