Marine Debris - Talking Trash

Fishing nets lost from the decks of fishing vessels can drift through the ocean and get caught on shallow coral reefs around islands and atolls. Once snagged on corals, the large nets can entangle, smother, and break pieces off in storms. The Marine Debris Team removed this large net filled with broken and dead coral heads from Seal-Kittery Island, Pearl and Hermes Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

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HOST: This is the NOAA Ocean Podcast. I'm Marissa Anderson. Marine debris is everyone's problem. Plastics, metals, fishing gear, and other lost and discarded items enter our ocean, Great Lakes, waterways, and coastal areas every day. Marine debris has been found in every corner of our ocean - from the most remote shorelines, to ice in the Arctic, to the deepest parts of the sea floor. How does this happen? How much trash is in the ocean? And what can we do to help protect the environment from this threat? We explore this topic with our expert, Sophie Maginnes, communication specialist for NOAA's Marine Debris Program. Let's dive right in.

MAGINNES: The marine debris is defined as any solid human-made item that ends up in our oceans, waterways, and Great Lakes, and it touches just about every part of our ocean, making it one of the most widespread pollution issues.

HOST: What are some of the more common items that would be considered marine debris?

MAGINNES: So, one of the most common items that we encounter is plastics. So, this is anything from food wrappers to plastic bags, straws, cigarette butts. But we also commonly encounter microplastics, and they're like fishing gear. So, those three items are some of the most commonly encountered.

HOST: Could you tell us a little bit more about what microplastics actually are?

MAGINNES: Microplastics are any pieces of plastic that are five millimeters in length or smaller. So, the largest of these pieces would be small enough to fit on the tip of your finger, and the smallest of these pieces can't even be seen by humans. And there are tons of different types of microplastics. There are microbeads, micro fragments, pellets, film, foam, fibers, tons of different kinds. And we categorize them as either primary microplastics or secondary microplastics. The primary microplastics are ones that are made intentionally or for a specific reason, an example being microbeads, which can sometimes be found in personal care products, like face wash or toothpaste, whereas secondary microplastics are microplastics that are created more accidentally, so to speak, by breaking off from larger plastic products. For example, sand, waves, wind, heat, all these things can break down plastics and cause them to break into microplastics. And other examples are clothing, furniture, tires, fishing nets, all these things can shed and release microplastics into the environment. And they're a huge issue because they're found truly everywhere. They're all throughout our waterways from tropical water to polarized freshwater. They've been found in tap water, bottled water that we drink, all sorts of other products that we eat and drink. They've even been found in the air we breathe, so they are truly all over.

HOST: Yes, it definitely sounds like microplastics are a big issue, like you said.

MAGINNES: Yes, a huge issue.

HOST: So where does marine debris actually come from and who or what produces it?

MAGINNES: It may sound obvious or silly to say that all marine debris comes from people, but the ways that it enters the water can vary greatly. So one of the main ways that debris can enter the ocean is from human activities on land. Many people often immediately assume that marine debris only comes from things like illegal littering or dumping, but it can actually often enter the ocean just due to poor waste management. So things like wind and rain can blow waste out of trash cans, stormwater discharge can transport debris into storm drains. So without proper waste management and catchment systems that are regularly emptied, trash can super easily end up in lakes and waterways in the ocean, even if people are trying to discard it properly. But it can also come from human activities that take place at sea. So this would include things like fishing gear being lost off of vessels or other sorts of debris being lost off of offshore platforms or cruise ships or personal vessels. Another example would be large shipping containers being lost off of shipping vessels. We see this relatively often. And one major example was from 2005, a storm caused a ship to lose 15 containers into the Monterey Canyon and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. And these containers were way too deep to be properly removed. So now the Sanctuary and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute are actually studying the impacts of the environment that these containers are having and the impacts to the wildlife that are now living on and around these sunken containers. And one final main way that debris can enter the ocean is through natural disasters. So things like hurricanes can create massive amounts of debris, including super large scale debris like cars, boats, even houses that can end up in the ocean.

HOST: That's really surprising to hear about shipping containers and how they can be considered marine debris when they're lost.

MAGINNES: Yeah, it's one that I wasn't even aware of until really getting into this field, but it's definitely more common of a problem than I would have expected.

HOST: Can you tell us about a more well known example of marine debris - the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch?"

MAGINNES: There are certain areas in the ocean called garbage patches where higher amounts or concentrations of debris can be found. And these garbage patches are formed by rotating ocean currents called gyres, which you can think of as like a big whirlpool that pulls objects into its center. So these gyres pull debris in and form these garbage patches, and there's actually five of them in the ocean. There's one in the Indian Ocean, two in the Atlantic Ocean, and two in the Pacific Ocean. So the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is formed by one of the two gyres in the Pacific Ocean, and this one specifically is located between Hawaii and California. And it's the most well-known patch because it was given a catchy name and a lot of airtime in the media. But like I said, it is one of five, so it's not the only one that exists. But in terms of what makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it's been found that about 46% of the debris in this specific patch is made up of lost fishing equipment. If you're calculating by total mass of debris in this patch, but if you're calculating by count or number of pieces of debris in this patch, it was found that about 94% of the pieces of debris are actually plastics or microplastics. That brings up an interesting point, which is that a lot of people, when they think of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, they envision this floating island of trash that you can see from the shore or a boat or a plane even. But this isn't actually necessarily the case. An analogy that we like to use instead is that garbage patches are more like pepper flakes swirling in a soup because a lot of the debris, like I said, are these microplastic pieces that people can't even see. And on top of that, the debris is not only spread across the surface, but it can also extend down the entire water column. So it's actually possible to sail through some of these areas of this garbage patch or others and not necessarily see any debris at all because it's either microscopic pieces of microplastics or it's underneath the surface.

HOST: How much marine debris is estimated to be in the ocean?

MAGINNES: It can be super difficult to estimate how much debris is actually in the ocean, just because once debris is in the ocean, it's really challenging to understand where it came from or how long it's been there. And because the currents are constantly transporting debris all around the world, it's super difficult to count or quantify debris, so to speak, to get an accurate gauge of how much there is in the ocean. That said, though, there have been a lot of studies aimed at looking at how much debris enters the ocean each year. So one example is a study from 2015, the Janbeck et al. study, which estimated that in 2010, about 275 million metric tons of plastic waste was generated by 192 coastal countries and about 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of that waste was estimated to have entered the ocean. And then another more recent study by Burrell et al. It estimated that in 2016, so just the following year, as much as 23 million metric tons of plastic waste entered the ocean. So these numbers, 12.7 million metric tons, 23 million metric tons, they may feel huge, but they're actually not even the whole picture. They don't include any type of debris that wasn't made of plastic because both of these studies only looked at plastics. They also don't account for marine debris that came from ocean-based sources like fishing gear being lost off a vessel because both of these studies only looked at debris originating from land. So we know that tons of debris is entering the ocean every year, but again, it's super hard to calculate exactly how much is entering annually and how much debris is already there.

HOST: You had actually touched on my next question about whether marine debris travels or stays in the same place, and you had said, due to ocean currents that debris actually does travel around. Could you tell us a little more about that?

MAGINNES: Yeah, so marine debris does travel around with ocean currents rather than remaining in one place. One example was the gyres pulling marine debris in and forming those garbage patches, but another really interesting example highlighting how far currents can carry this debris is from 2011 a large earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, and the government of Japan estimated that 5 million metric tons of debris was carried into the ocean following this tsunami, of which about 70% sank near shore, but the remaining 30% or about 1.5 million tons of debris stripped it into the Pacific, and some of it actually even eventually washed up on U.S. and Canadian shores. An interesting example, there was this large dock from Japan. It was 185 tons, 65 feet long, and it was carried in tack across the Pacific as a result of this tsunami and washed up on Washington's Olympic coast. So cleanup efforts were needed for that dock, but cleanup efforts didn't only take place in Washington. They were also needed in Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, California, all to remove debris that originated from this tsunami halfway around the world. So it really goes to show just how far debris can travel once it enters the ocean.

HOST: That's really incredible to hear about that dock traveling all the way across the ocean.

MAGINNES: I know, I was very surprised when I heard that story.

HOST: Those are some really thought provoking statistics of how much marine debris is actually in the ocean. This definitely seems like an extremely challenging problem to deal with. Could you tell us more about that?

MAGINNES: Dealing with debris can be super challenging for a large number of reasons, but primarily just because the issue is so large and so widespread that it requires getting a lot of people on the same page about how to address the problem. So that goes for government agencies, NGOs, corporations, small businesses, universities, all the way down to individuals. It really is a multi-level issue so it requires multi-level solutions starting with prevention. So we like to compare the issue of debris to an overflowing sink. The first step you would take before cleaning up the water off the floor is turning off the tap of the sink. So the same thing goes for marine debris. The best thing we can do is to turn off the tap, so to speak, or stop the issue at its source so that items don't become debris in the first place. But in terms of removal efforts for debris that's already entered the environment, marine debris can range super greatly in size anywhere from a large abandoned vessel, which requires significant funding and specialized equipment for removal down to these tiny microplastics that aren't even visible to humans. So every kind of debris poses its own sort of unique challenges, which means a very diverse range of efforts is needed to fully address the issue, which can make it a bit more challenging. And then on top of that, the fact that, like I said, debris is constantly traveling with ocean currents just adds an additional challenge, not only to these removal efforts, but it can also make it difficult to determine where debris originated from, which is a really helpful piece of information to have to better inform future prevention efforts.

HOST: What are some of the main impacts of marine debris in the ocean, Great Lakes, and the waterways?

MAGINNES: There are tons of impacts of marine debris, one of which is it can entangle animals, making it difficult for them to swim or cutting into their bodies, killing them. Large debris like derelict fishing gear, vessels, appliances - they can crush and smother habitats like spelt marshes or coral reefs. Debris can also be ingested by wildlife, particularly wildlife who feed on smaller animals, common for them to mistake microplastics for food, and lab studies have shown that microplastics and chemicals with intact plastics can impact animals by delaying their developmental stages or causing problems with reproduction or making it difficult for them to fight off disease, so this can be super problematic. Another impact is something that we call ghost fishing, which is when fishing gear is lost or discarded, but continues to fish, so to speak, for marine species. For example, derelict crab pots that have sunk to the bottom of the ocean can continue to catch crabs and other non-target species, even though they're not actively being used by fishermen, and this ghost gear not only affects marine species by trapping and possibly killing them, but it can also have a negative economic impact because it can compete with the active fishing gear by continuing to catch and kill these target species. Another very interesting impact is that debris can pick up what we call hitchhikers which are organisms that attach themselves to marine debris and travel to areas of the ocean that they otherwise wouldn't be found, and introducing a non-native species to an area that it maybe has never been before can have potentially negative ecological impacts because it could lead to an invasive species issue or something along those lines. And then the last main impact that we are concerned about is that it can also impact our economy, so dirty beaches can deter visitors, can affect tourism and recreation value, it can also damage vessels by entangling propellers or the rudder, so not only does it have a ton of environmental impacts, it can also have negative economic impacts.

HOST: That's really interesting to hear how with the marine debris problem, that it can introduce non-native species to different ecosystems.

MAGINNES: I know it's definitely a lesser known impact and something that was new to me when I started this job and started learning about all the different ways that it can impact the environment.

HOST: Why is it important to raise public awareness on this pollution threat?

MAGINNES: It's super important to educate the public on this issue because ultimately, it's important to be aware of the impacts but it's super important to educate the public on this issue because ultimately, it's going to take a collective effort from everyone to solve this problem and to make lasting change. This includes government, NGOs, corporations, individuals, everyone in each of these groups at each of these levels has something that they can do to combat this issue and we want to start awareness to put the issue on everyone's radar but also to put the solutions on everyone's radar so that they know a bit about what they can do.

HOST: Can you tell us about NOAA's role in combating this issue?

MAGINNES: The NOAA Marine Debris program was established by Congress in 2006 through the Marine Debris Act, and this act established us as the U.S. government's lead for addressing marine debris. So, as such, we work with tons of partners all over the country to combat debris, and not only our oceans, but also our Great Lakes. And we do this through our six main pillars, which are prevention, removal, research, monitoring and detection, response, and coordination. So, we help fund and carry out projects all over the country that fall into each of those six pillars.

HOST: You mentioned earlier how prevention is key to helping to solve this problem. I think you said to compare it to turning off the faucet in the sink. What can the public do to help prevent trash and other items from ending up in our ocean, Great Lakes and waterways?

MAGINNES: Yeah, so there's a number of things that individuals can do to help combat this issue, one of which is leading or participating in local cleanup, so helping clean streets, beaches, coastlines, anything like that can help prevent debris from eventually ending up in our ocean. Another important thing people can do is to model the behavior that they want to see in others. So for example, food packaging is one of the most common types of debris found during cleanup. Individuals can reduce the amount of food packaging that they produce by making it a habit of carrying reusables with them, whether that's bringing your own cup to a coffee shop, bringing takeout containers to a restaurant or your own utensils to community events. Not only will that be helping reduce your own personal waste, but it can also set an example for what others can do on a day-to-day basis to help out with the marine debris issue. And then another less obvious thing that people can do to help out is to participate in a sharing economy by giving things away rather than throwing them away, by participating in clothing swap, donating, things like that. Because a lot of people think of marine debris as just single-use plastics, but debris can be anything from clothes to furniture to household appliances, truly anything that's discarded. So a major way to help out is to circulate these things that you're planning to get rid of rather than just throwing them away, because this can help keep them out of landfills in the first place and prevent even the possibility of them becoming pollution.

HOST: Those are such great practices that you shared, and it just really shows that we can all make a positive impact here.

MAGINNES: Yeah, definitely, there is something that everyone can do to help. Marine debris is caused by people, which means that it can be solved by people. And while there's no one-size-fits-all solution to the problem, it's going to take a collective effort to coordinate amongst all different kinds of groups, and it's going to take a range of different methods, starting with prevention. It really doesn't matter if you live on a coast or hundreds of miles away from it, there are things that all groups of people can do to help out just very basic changes to day-to-day life that can really make a difference.

HOST: This has been the NOAA Ocean Podcast. Thanks for listening and check out our show notes to learn more about marine debris, and what you can do to help reduce trash in our ocean, coasts, and waterways. Be sure to catch all our episodes in your podcast player of choice.

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