More bad news for the world’s oceans - out of Canada!

by Larry Powell

Pacific oysters - with salt and lime. By Guido - Flickr.

A team of Canadian researchers has found that BC’s premier oyster-growing region off the east coast of Vancouver Island, is “highly contaminated” with micro plastics. The team, from Simon Fraser University, says it is now important to find out if the oysters themselves are ingesting the plastics. If they are, it could have implications for the health and quality of the product itself, Canada’s oyster-farmers, in general and the entire industry, worldwide.

The scientists found micro-plastics at all 16 sites sampled within Lambert Channel and Baynes Sound, indicating "widespread contamination of these regions with these particles." That is Canada's prime growing area for the Pacific oyster (Crassostrea gigas).

It is also feared the microplastics could accumulate trace metals which, in turn, could harm the oysters and other organisms on the sea-bottom. 

Dynabeads, a magnetic form of microbead, 

similar to the ones referenced here.Photo by Kunnskap.

Three types of micro-plastics were recovered and identified, with microbeads being the most common.

-30-

The graceful albatross - immortalized over the ages as a symbol of both good and ill - is under siege like never before.

by Larry Powell

This is the story of the "Grey-Head." It's but a single member of a large family of albatrosses called Diomedeidae. Major research studies published recently, warn of twin threats facing the already-endangered bird. Each is different. Each is insidious. 

The grey-headed albatross (Thalassarche chrysostoma). 
Photo by Lieutenant Elizabeth Crapo, NOAA.

In general, the albatross carries higher burdens of mercury in its body than any other bird on earth. (In the marine environment, only some marine mammals carry more.)  

Still, even those who measured levels of mercury in "Grey-Heads" at their largest breeding colony on South Georgia Island recently, must have been shocked by what they found.

Photo credit: Richard Phillips.

They discovered the highest amounts of that contaminant ever recorded in that species anywhere - a threefold increase over twenty-five-years. 

Mercury is described as a “pervasive environmental contaminant that can negatively impact humans and wildlife.” While some of it originates in nature, much probably comes from distant gold mines or coal-fired power plants. In gaseous form, it can travel long-distances through the air. As it settles onto the marine environment, it becomes even more toxic as it moves up through the food web.

The birds then ingest it in their prey. It doesn't kill them outright. But it reduces their ability to reproduce. Adult males on South Georgia who sired the fewest chicks, also had the highest levels of mercury in their bodies.

The "Grey-Head" finds no refuge in the remoteness of its home.

South Georgia is a lonely spot, far out in the Atlantic, east of South America's southernmost tip. (The general area is sometimes referred to as "The Southern Ocean" or "sub-Antarctica.")

In 2003 and 2004, the last available count, there were almost 48 thousand pair breeding on the island - about half of their entire world population.

While that may sound like a lot, their numbers have been in decline for over thirty years. And now, they’re listed by the World Conservation Union as endangered.

The lead author of the study, William Mills of the British Antarctic Survey, tells PinP in an email, "Trends that we found could be due to birds shifting their diets or foraging habitats to more contaminated prey or regions."

In a paper published by The Royal Society in December, Dr. Mills' team concludes, "These results provide key insights into the drivers and consequences of Hg (mercury) exposure in this globally important albatross population."

But the Grey Head's problems don't end with mercury contamination.

Albatross chick at Midway Atoll Refuge. Photo by Chris Jordan.

Research published last spring in the journal Environment International finds, “Grey-headed albatrosses are exposed to large and increasing amounts of plastics transported from coastal South America in the Subantarctic Current, or discarded from vessels and circulating in the South Atlantic Gyre."

It's a horrible tale, long illustrated by images of the birds (and many other forms of marine life) becoming entangled in fish-nets as "biocatch." The birds also mistake much of the plastic as food. While the adults can sometimes regurgitate it, the chicks cannot and die as a result. 

"Marine plastics are a major, trans-boundary animal-welfare and environmental issue," concludes the report, "that needs to be addressed by much-improved waste-management practices and compliance-monitoring both on land and on vessels in the south Atlantic.”

The albatross....not an "ordinary" bird.

The albatross is among the largest of all the flying birds. Its wingspan can be as wide as a basketball player is tall. Even its lifespan - up to eight decades - is comparable to a human's.

It has the remarkable ability of spending the first few years of its long life never touching land - just soaring above the ocean and resting only on the water. It's such an efficient and effortless flyer - it rarely needs to even flap its wings.

Immortalized over the ages as an omen of either good or ill.

Some interpret "The Rime," below, as a commentary on man's inhumanity toward nature. It was written centuries ago. But is the message really that different all these years later? l.p.

RELATED:

Scientists sound alarm about unprecedented mercury accumulation in Pacific Ocean trenches

Namibian fishery reduces seabird deaths by 98%

Scientists Uncover New Ocean Threat From Plastics

By Steve Connor, Science Editor - the Independent - Thursday, 20 August 2009.

Plastic pollution is not just unsightly but it could be to toxic to humans and animals.

The North Pacific Gyre, which traps untold
amounts of plastic particles in its eddies.
(Credit: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)

$180 B investment in plastic factories feeds global packaging binge

theguardian

Colossal funding in manufacturing plants by fossil fuel companies will increase plastic production by 40%, risking permanent pollution of the earth. Story here.

RELATED: Big oil invests $180B in plastics, merging two planet-killing industries

Human-made materials outweigh living biomass

                   Journal Nature

A PinP photo.

The year 2020 may mark the crossover point when human-made mass surpasses that of living biomass according to a study published in Nature this week. The mass embedded in human-made items, such as buildings, roads and machines, has doubled every 20 years for the past 100 years.

These findings underscore the increasing impacts that humans have on Earth.

Since the first agricultural revolution humans have halved plant biomass, from around 2 teratonnes (2,000,000,000,000 tonnes) to the current value of around 1 teratonne, through land-use changes such as agriculture and deforestation. The increasing production and accumulation of human-made objects (termed anthropogenic mass) has also contributed to a shift in the balance between living and human-made mass.

Ron Milo and colleagues estimate changes in global biomass and human-made mass from 1900 to the present day. They show that at the beginning of the twentieth century, the mass of human-produced objects was equal to around 3% of total biomass, whereas today human-made mass exceeds the overall global biomass, weighing in at around 1.1 teratonnes. Over this period, overall biomass decreased slightly, whereas anthropogenic mass has increased rapidly and is now being produced at a rate of more than 30 gigatonnes (30,000,000,000 tonnes) per year. This means that for every person in the world, more than their body weight in human-made objects is being produced each week.

Buildings and roads make up the majority of human-made mass; other examples include plastics and machines. Changes in the composition of this mass correspond to specific construction trends, such as the shift from using bricks to concrete in buildings from the mid-1950s and the use of asphalt for road paving in the 1960s. In addition, shifts in the total anthropogenic mass are linked to major events, such as continuous increases in construction after World War II (a period known as the Great Acceleration).

The exact timing of crossover is sensitive to definitions, so there may be some variability in the estimates, the authors note. They use dry-weight estimates (excluding water), but they suggest that wet-mass estimates or different definitions of mass categories could still place the transition in mass balance within the past, present or future decade.

If current trends continue, human-generated mass is expected to exceed 3 teratonnes by 2040.

Study confirmed plastic beach debris a danger to wildlife.

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

At current rates of plastic production, by 2050 the total mass of plastics in our oceans will outweigh the biomass of fish.  — World Economic Forum. More here.

Pieces of plastic that washed ashore after a storm. 
Pacific Ocean beach in San Francisco. Source: 
Plastic Oceans. Author: Kevin Krejci.

President Obama's Cancer Panel: Eat Organic, Avoid Plastics

By Leah Zerbe - Rodale Institute Au '10

Our organic table at Old Market Sq. in downtown
Winnipeg, Manitoba. 2006. l.p. photo

A landmark report says the U.S. government has been grossly underestimating the effect of environmental toxins on our cancer risk.

‘Software disease’ — The hazards of plastic, net wrap and twines

    Canadian Cattlemen

Animal Health: Ingestion of plastics has become a common killer. Story here.

We must keep single-use plastics out of our oceans.

Greenpeace - More here.

Poster by Jessica - NOAA marine debris program.

Reduce plastics! PLEASE SIGN!

Fishing equipment feeding North Pacific Garbage Patch - Canada shamefully contributes its share

Scientific Report 

A small number of industrialised fishing nations are contributing the majority of floating plastic waste in the North Pacific Garbage Patch, reports a new paper published in Scientific Report. The findings highlight the important role fishing industries play in both contributing to and solving the problem of oceanic plastic pollution.

The North Pacific Garbage Patch (NPGP) is a large mass of plastics floating in the North Pacific subtropical gyre (a system of ocean currents). Previous expeditions have suggested that fishing nets, ropes and larger plastic fragments may form up to three quarters of the objects in the region.

Plastic Research at The Ocean Cleanup, analysing the items caught by System 001/B in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, looking for clues on origin based on language and country codes. Credit: The Ocean Cleanup.

Laurent Lebreton and colleagues analysed 573 kilograms of debris (consisting of 6,093 items larger than 5 centimetres) collected from the North Pacific subtropical gyre during an expedition between June and November 2019. The debris was collected from latitudes between 33.0 and 35.1 degrees North and longitudes between 143.0 and 145.6 degrees West. The plastic debris pieces were inspected for evidence of their country of origin, such as language, company name or logo. The authors also modelled how plastic debris may enter the ocean using ocean current data.

Samples of plastic caught in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by System 002, the most recent iteration of our ocean cleaning system: a crate (with visible Japanese text), eel traps and nets are all visible, all of which originate from fishing activities. Credit: The Ocean Cleanup

Although 33% of the debris were unidentifiable fragments, the second largest category of objects (26%) was fishing equipment such as fish boxes, oyster spacers, and eel traps. Plastic floats and buoys made up 3% of the objects, but accounted for 21% of the total mass. The authors report that, for the 232 plastic objects where the origin could be identified, 33.6% (78) were from Japan, 32.3% (75) were from China, and 9.9% (23) were from South Korea. A further 6.5% (15) of such objects originated from the USA, 5.6% (13) from Taiwan, and 7.3% (11) from Canada. The authors report that, according to their models, plastic debris in the NPGP was more than ten times more likely to originate from fishing activities rather than land-based activities. They note that most of the identified countries contributing to the plastic debris have industrialised fishing.

These findings highlight the need for transparency from the fishing industry and strengthened cooperation between countries to regulate waste management on board fishing vessels and monitor abandoned fishing gear in the oceans, according to the authors.

Humans face a shocking, chemical-induced reproductive crisis

treehugger

Endocrine disrupting chemicals in our environment have damaged male sperm, most of which are now misshapen and unable to swim properly. Story here.

Plastics like this contribute to the problem. 

Microplastics found in oysters, clams on Oregon coast, study finds. (Last year, Canadian scientists discovered high levels of microplastics in B.C.’s oyster beds). Is our clothing to blame?

EurekAlert

Pacific oysters, farmed in the U.S.
Photo by NOAA.

Tiny threads of plastics are showing up in Pacific oysters and razor clams along the Oregon coast -- and the yoga pants, fleece jackets, and sweat-wicking clothing that Pacific Northwesterners love to wear are a source of that pollution, according to a new Portland State University study. Story here.

RELATED:

More bad news for the world’s oceans - out of Canada!