Part I: Florida's environmental disaster hits the beaches
By Willie Howard
Environmental groups are ramping up the fight against plastic pollution in the ocean with campaigns featuring images of entangled birds, littered beaches and research showing that tiny, harmful particles of plastic are entering the food chain.
Their goal is as large as the ocean plastics problem itself: steering convenience-oriented consumers away from bags, cups, straws, food containers and other plastic products that often find their way into the water.
The battle is being waged at the national level through organizations such as the Ocean Conservancy and locally through conservation groups such as the Sea Angels, the Palm Beach County chapter of the Surfrider Foundation and Beach Guardians Atlantic Coasts.
“The issue cannot be resolved without a change in perception regarding its scope, origin and the part we each contribute towards helping or harming the coast,” said Linda Emerson, founder of Beach Guardians Atlantic Coasts.
“It’s changing behavior,” Emerson said. “It doesn’t take much to keep a couple of reusable bags in your car and take them into Publix.” And releasing a balloon into the sky, she said, is just like dropping it in the ocean.
Plastic pollution is easy to spot. Just walk along the beach.
Volunteers with Sea Angels routinely find plastic bottle caps, straws, bottles, bags, cigarette filters and broken pieces of plastic during monthly beach cleanups near Boynton Inlet.
Monofilament fishing line and Mylar balloons are also common finds, especially when the seas are rough, Sea Angels founder Robyn Halasz said.
But there’s a more subtle plastics problem in the ocean: chemical pollution that occurs when discarded plastic products break down or enter the ocean as “microbeads” used in beauty products such as exfoliating face cleansers, which often contain polyethylene.
Microbeads go straight from bathroom drains into the food chain, bypassing traditional sewage treatment plants, according to studies cited by the Plastic Soup Foundation.
Some marine organisms can’t distinguish between food and microplastics (defined as plastic pieces measuring less than 5 millimeters). Microbeads found in personal care products are typically smaller than 1 millimeter — or about the same size as fish eggs, which mean they look like food.
Scientists suggest that toxins absorbed by the microbeads can be eaten by fish, then passed on to humans and wildlife.
Some 660 marine species are negatively affected by ocean debris, and about 70 species have been harmed by the ingestion of microplastics, a study published for the Convention on Biological Diversity showed.
A female whale that mysteriously died after swimming into an industrial tributary of the Chesapeake Bay last year was found to have a plastic DVD case in its stomach. The plastic case had lacerated the whale’s stomach, preventing it from feeding.
Eleven manatees have died in Florida after eating some type of plastic that caused an obstruction of the digestive tract, according to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.
The FWC does not track the systemic effects of plastic ingested by manatees, but pieces of plastic have been found in the digestive tracts of 219 dead manatees in Florida, said Brandon Basino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg.
Sea turtles often mistake deflated balloons for food and eat them, which can be fatal.
Florida law forbids the release of 10 or more balloons in a 24-hour period if the balloons are filled with a gas lighter than air, such as helium.
Plastic found in the gut of Cilantro, a turtle that died in 2012. Provided by Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
Balloons and plastic fragments are often removed from the digestive tracts of sick sea turtles, said Kirt Rusenko, a marine conservationist at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca Raton.
About two-thirds of the sea turtles that are treated for plastic ingestion survive, said Rusenko, who directs the Boca Raton Sea Turtle Conservation & Research Program.
“Whenever we do necropsies on sea turtles, unfortunately, we’ve noticed there’s plastics in all of their stomachs,” Rusenko said.
About 44 percent of sea birds eat plastic, according to a study by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
Because plastics are entering the food chain and people eat seafood, environmental groups are warning consumers about the effects of plastic on human health.
“What goes in the ocean goes in you,” warns the Surfrider Foundation’s Rise Above Plastics, or RAP, awareness campaign.
The Surfrider Foundation notes that the same qualities that make plastic durable also make it “an environmental nightmare.”
Plastics degrade into small pieces when exposed to waves and ultraviolet rays, but research shows they can leach toxic chemicals into the ocean in the process.
Locals promoting
awareness campaign
Environmental groups in Palm Beach County are campaigning against plastic products used every day by consumers.
“Awareness is our biggest weapon against the hoards of plastic pollution already infecting our environment,” said Jaimie Hamilton, who chairs the RAP campaign for the Surfrider Foundation’s Palm Beach County chapter.
As part of its campaign, Surfrider’s Palm Beach County chapter is offering consumers branded reusable bags and reusable water bottles as well as tips for avoiding plastic in their daily routines.
Drew Martin of Lake Worth, conservation chairman for the Sierra Club’s Loxahatchee Group, avoids single-use plastic food and drink containers as well as plastic eating utensils.
“When I go out to dinner, I take a Tupperware or permanent container to bring home leftovers,” Martin said. “When I go to a picnic, I take my own metal utensils, plate and cup. I travel with a metal bottle that I reuse.”
Halasz of Sea Angels said she and her husband reuse straws when they receive them and often drink directly from cups. They do use reusable straws with reusable cups.
Halasz says she shops with reusable bags, including produce bags, and asks for paper if she forgets her shopping bags.
“If we can bring it to the counter with our own two hands, we can carry it out without a bag.”
During beach cleanups, Sea Angels volunteers use buckets instead of plastic bags to carry rubbish, and they recycle as much of the trash as possible.
Halasz said she and her husband won’t take home food from restaurants in polystyrene containers. They simply leave the leftovers at the restaurant instead.
“There’s a lot people can do,” Halasz said. “It’s just getting them in the habit.”
The Ocean Conservancy, the conservation group that organizes the International Coastal Cleanup held in September, launched the Trash Free Seas Alliance in 2012 to stop plastics and other forms of garbage from reaching the ocean.
Corporate partners include The Coca-Cola Co. and The Dow Chemical Co., a major plastics manufacturer.
“The alliance unites industry, science and conservation leaders who share a common goal for a healthy ocean free of trash,” the Ocean Conservancy’s website says.
“Members seek to reduce, and, where possible, reinvent products and services that damage ocean wildlife or ecosystems.”
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