Pacific Ocean It contains endless paradise islands with beautiful landscapes and the most diverse fauna. But if every family has a black sheep, then in the Pacific Islands: garbage island. Well, it’s not really an island per se, but colloquially this plastic waste patch is called that, mostly because its size allows it. This is 1.6 million square kilometers of pure garbage. From a distance it looks like a big spot in the sea, but up close you can see that it is millions and millions. plastic fragments which, according to a new study, appear mainly due to 5 countries.
The study in question, published in Scientific reports and conducted by Dutch scientists also indicates that most of these fragments are not the result of activities on Earth. There is a lot of talk about how we need to change our habits to minimize the amount of plastic waste that ends up in the sea. However, those we produce from the ground seem to remain mostly on the beach. Those that reach the open sea are rather those that are generated by fishing. And that’s what seems to be happening with most of the waste from the garbage island in the Pacific.
fishermen from China, Japan, South Korea, USA and Taiwan contributed 87% plastic shards garbage island. This is their conclusion, but let’s see how they arrived at it.
From language to year of origin on a Pacific garbage island
To conduct the study, the authors analyzed 573 kg of hard plastic recovered from a Pacific garbage island in 2019. So they saw that a quarter of this waste came from lost or abandoned fishing tackle. Of course, not counting the nets and discarded ropes.
The fishing gear mentioned included all kinds of items, from buoys before oyster strutsPassing traps and floats for eels. Most did not have serial numbers or anything that would help determine their exact origin. However, in fragments larger than 5 centimeters You can often read words that give a rough idea of where they might have been made. To begin with, language can be very revealing. So they started by classifying this plastic from the garbage island based on it. The most abundant was Chinesefollowed by Japanese, English and Korean. It is curious that in some they could determine the year. Most were plastics from items made in the 21st century, though they found a buoy from 1966. But this did not help to establish its origin.
On the other hand, it was possible to determine from some of these fragments where they were made. In particular, they were able to classify in this way fragments of 232 objects, of which about two-thirds were made in China or Japan, and 10% in South Korea, 6.5% in the United States, 5.6% in Taiwan and 4.7% in Canada. But we must not forget that the place of manufacture it has nothing to do with origin. For example, in Europe we use many products made in China or Taiwan.
What are the models telling us?
Some other factor had to be taken into account, and it is here that the models established from sea currents and fishing from different countries.
Thus, they concluded that the countries that left the most garbage on the garbage island were China, Japan, USA, South Korea and Taiwan. The only thing that somehow did not grow together was that the models should have been found less Japanese writing than what was observed in the analyzed pieces of plastic. However, there is an explanation for this, since 2011 tsunami was able to push more debris into the Pacific Ocean.
Why is ground activity excluded?
The same models developed by these scientists have also been used to study the likelihood that plastic fragments produced on Earth will end up in the Earth. pacific garbage island. So they saw that it was unlikely. It is common that when they reach the sea they remain stuck near the beachbut don’t go as far as this lot plastic waste.
Therefore, fishing activities play a serious role in the reproduction of this Pacific black sheep. Even with restrictions on land, if the same is not done for fishermen, the garbage island will continue to grow. And you don’t even need to remember what the consequences for the ecosystem are and will be. Unfortunately, for all of us, they are quite clear.
Source: Hiper Textual
