Ocean trash affecting the whales
The floating object in the humpback whale’s path at first looked like an ocean sunfish, which are roundish and can often be seen lazily floating on the water’s surface.
It wasn’t until photographer Mark Girardeau got home, where he could see the drone video he shot up close during an excursion aboard Newport Coastal Adventure, that he realized it was no fish, but instead was a plastic bag stuck in the whale’s mouth.
Finally the whale was able to swim upside down and release the bag, but the moment showed what marine life is grappling with just offshore of Southern California’s coast, where advocates say ocean trash appears worse than ever.
“We are seeing way more plastics out on the surface of the water since the pandemic hit,” said Kurt Lieber, founder and president of the Ocean Defenders Alliance.
About a week ago, Lieber took a boat out of San Pedro and headed north to Point Vicente off Palos Verdes. The moment he left the Los Angeles Harbor, he said he saw a distinct line of plastic trash — and it continued for the next 10 miles.
“It was so disheartening,” he said in an email. “This is an area where we see migrating gray whales at this time of year.”
This is Lieber’s 21st year out on the ocean with the Ocean Defenders Alliance and he said he never has he seen the trash problem this bad.
Lieber pulled his boat close to kelp patties, dozens of them inundated with plastic trash, he said.
“When we got to Point Vicente, we headed about a mile out to get out of the cesspool, and were greeted by a pod of common dolphins that wanted to bow ride for the next two miles,”
he said, a pleasant end to what was a bummer outing.
While the Ocean Defenders Alliance hasn’t done any quantifiable studies on the percentages of trash found offshore, Lieber estimates about 80% is singleuse plastics.
“Sodas and water bottles, bags of all shapes and sizes, forks, spoons, knives and plastic film packaging,” he said. “COVID masks, surgical gloves, and last, but not least, cigarette butts.”
Girardeau said it’s not uncommon to see trash offshore in the days following a winter season storm, when rain pushes trash that has been building up during the dry months downstream to the coast. But it’s been nearly a month since the last rain and there’s still piles of trash floating around offshore, he said.
“It’s been a month and there’s still crap all over,” he said. “Usually it dissipates … there’s still trash everywhere. “
It wasn’t just the plastic bag the whale encountered off Huntington Beach’s coastline. Trash dotted the ocean’s surface for miles — small bits and bigger pieces — more than Girardeau said he has seen in the past six years documenting sea life off the coast.
“That was the first humpback we’ve seen in at least a month. It was cool to see that, but to see it in trash, it was like, ‘come on,’” he said. “There wasn’t any video I was able to take without getting trash in it. It was pretty ridiculous.”
There has always been the balloons floating around and bits of trash they come across, but this was different, he said.
“There’s face masks, gloves and water bottles,” he said. “There were several coolers, which is weird. It’s almost like every random thing is out there, every type of piece of trash. A lot of chip bags.”
There could be pandemic-related reasons ocean trash seems especially bad.