Plastic problem is beyond ‘personal virtue’

Earlier this month, biologists removed 88 pounds of plastic from the gut of a Cuvier’s beaked whale found dead in the Philippines, calling it “the most plastic we have ever seen in a whale.”

Last year, an emaciated male sperm whale that was vomiting blood washed ashore on Spain’s Mediterranean coast and died. Sixty-four pounds of plastic bags, fish nets, rope and other items clogged its stomach and intestines, starving it to death.

There are numerous other accounts of dead whales with digestive systems clogged by plastics in all major oceans.

Whales confuse floating plastic litter as prey and eat it. Once swallowed, they can’t digest it. Eventually, they succumb to severe abdominal obstruction.

Lethal, nearly indestructible plastic litter floating from decomposing bodies of whales can kill other whales, other marine mammals, fish and birds.

Fishermen sometimes lose their nets or discard them into the ocean when they become worn. Whales can eat fragments of those “phantom nets,” and smaller marine birds and especially sea turtles can become entangled in them and drown.

A study published in 2015 in the journal Science estimated that 275 million metric tons of plastic litter entered our oceans in 2010 alone. The authors estimated that by 2025, that rate could increase tenfold.

The Sixth Global Environmental Outlook, released by the United Nations this month, estimates that plastics make up three-quarters of all litter dumped into our oceans. These include microplastic particles fewer than 5 millimeters wide. They form the base of cosmetics, paints and other industrial products. Weathering of larger plastic litter also produces microplastics.

These microplastics exist in the seafood we eat. A separate Science study published this year found that scallops ingest and retain micro- and nanoplastics in their guts and muscle fibers up to 48 days after exposure.

We ingest these microplastics when we eat scallops and other marine filterfeeding organisms such as clams and some fish. We know little about the health effects of eating them.

Plastic litter comprised largely of single-use products such as straws and grocery bags form a large portion of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” located in the north central Pacific Ocean. Ocean current vortices form similar, floating “plastic islands” in other oceans.

The garbage patch covers 600,000 square miles (twice the size of Texas) and contains more than 80,000 tons of plastic litter.

It’s tempting to suggest that if we all buckle down and commit to recycling, reusing and reducing the use of disposable plastics, we can tackle this environmental threat. Former vice president Dick Cheney once deemed such actions as “a sign of personal virtue.”

Acting individually and virtuously in this manner, however, will not save our oceans, the rest of our environment or us.

We should elect to reduce, recycle, and reuse plastics and other resources. We should elect to reduce our environmental footprint as much as we can. But we also should elect policymakers who can acknowledge our unintended harm to marine life and the rest of our environment, and support policies to protect them.

Steve Rissing is a biology professor at Ohio State University.

steverissing@hotmail.com