Marine Policy Project

Marine Policy Project Part 2

Submitted By: M Farooqi

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Out in the Pacific Ocean, large amounts of waste debris is found floating in a bisque called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Patch is characterized as an area twice the size of Texas where plastic flakes outweigh plankton. The area has an exceptionally high concentration of plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. The most destructive is the plastic waste, which cannot be biodegraded, and raids the health of the oceanic ecosystem. The patch is rapidly growing in size and is considered as the largest human waste dump in the world. All of the trash in the Pacific is creating an ecological disaster. This paper will address the effects that the disposal of plastic waste has on California’s coastal marine ecosystem. As well as the potential legal legislations and regulations being established to manage, protect and restore our marine environments.

Scientists estimate that plastic makes up 60 to 80 percent of marine debris worldwide. (SNMNH 2010) Throughout the California coastline, thousands of birds and sea-life creatures are dying from consuming indigestible plastic particles or becoming entangled within the rubbish. The consumed plastics are kept in the gut instead of passing through, the fish could feel full (of plastic not food) and this could lead to malnutrition or starvation. (NOAA 2011) The spectacle becomes even more poignant, as thousands of bird corpses rest on these beaches, piles of colorful plastic remaining where their stomachs had been. (CCORG 2009) A new study published last year by Scripps researchers in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series shows that nine percent of the fish collected during SEAPLEX, a UC Ship Funds-supported voyage, contained plastic waste in their stomachs. (UCSD CPA 2012) Photo-degraded plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller polymers...