Global plastic water pollution testing reveals frightening truth
EVERY second breath you take is made possible by phytoplankton – minute plants that float in vast numbers in the sea, and produce half the world’s oxygen.
But these tiny organisms’ ability to produce oxygen through photosynthesis may be compromised by one of humanity’s biggest waste headaches: plastic.
This week, expedition members from the round-the-world Race for Water Odyssey – which hopes to make the first global assessment of plastic pollution in the oceans from its trimaran – said at a briefing at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, that enormous quantities of “plastic dust” were threatening to compromise the functioning of phytoplankton.
The odyssey, which began in France on March 15, was initiated by the Race for Water Foundation, a Swiss NGO dedicated to preserving water.
Franklin Servan-Schreiber, a board member of the foundation, said yesterday that “50% of oxygen we owe to these tiny plankton we don’t even see, but dust plastic is affecting the plankton’s ability to produce oxygen”.
About 80% of rubbish in the ocean is plastic; of the 250 million tons of plastic produced every year, about 10% ends up in the sea and 1 million birds are killed by plastic every year. Tiny plastic particles are “eaten” by zooplankton and are taken up in the food chain.
Samples
Marco Simeoni, the president of the Race for Water Foundation, said despite the massive scale of plastic waste in the ocean, not much was known about it.
The team would assess plastic pollution on remote islands in the oceans’ five “gyres”, or rubbish hot spots. The islands act as natural barriers against the movement of the rubbish – which collects on the shores – and are excellent places to collect representative samples.
The team measured macroand microplastic – tiny bits broken down by the waves and sun – which they found by sieving the sand on beaches.
The plastic would be analysed in laboratories to determine what kind it was, and to determine its toxicity to marine life. The purpose was to get a comprehensive understanding of the problem to find solutions. The team used aerial drones to survey some areas, and the data gathered would be analysed by Duke University and Oregon State University.
The Race for Water Odyssey team had sailed across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and were in the middle of the Indian Ocean about two weeks ago when the trimaran capsized in freak weather, two days’ sail from the Chagos Islands. The members were rescued by a research ship after they raised the alarm via satellite phone.
Simeoni said the boat would be shipped back to France for repairs, but said it had not scuppered the expedition. They had flown to Reunion, and had sampled plastic pollution there with the help of a scientist.
One of the solutions they were working on was to convert plastic back into oil.