Beached whale's stomach contents

Sadly there is an amazing amount of garbage floating around our oceans. Talk to anyone dealing with stranded marine mammals, birds and sea turtles and you will hear a litany of debris either removed from stomachs or entangling the animals :(
 
I think everyone who visits the beach should bring a trash bag with them and just spend 5 minutes picking up all the trash they can find. I think people would really be surprised how bad the problem is.

Last year I did a survey of trash on the beach in one of the state parks near here. Since it's in a state park access is limited. It's also groomed every morning to remove the trash. It looks like a very clean beach. Unless you're actually looking for trash you're not likely to notice much. We randomly threw down 40 1x1m quadrats along a 5 mile stretch of beach. Every single one had at least two pieces of plastic in it. Every one! I also spent time picking up all the trash I saw along a half mile stretch of the same beach and got 12 lbs in a little over an hour.
 
I often think the advent of the plastic bottle is a bad thing. Can't walk a beach without finding lots of them. Glass bottles just got turned into beach glass and eventually ground back to sand.
 
Right now in the Piping Plover season I see lots of trash on the beach, especially after a winter with some big storms. When summer gets into full swing and the tourist season starts, the amount of trash actually starts to go down. There is a surprising number of people who will pick up stuff when they see it, especially if they walk that beach daily.
 
When I was in the Navy I always thought it was funny when you'd see something floating in the water hundreds of miles from land. Shoes, tennis balls, plastic bottles, you name it. It's truly sad what we're doing to the oceans, and the planet in general.

Mike
 
Tahoe Reefer said:
Sad is right. There are several Gyres in our oceans that trap all sorts of trash in various stages of breaking down. There is basicaly a whirlwind of plastic particles, chemical sludge trapped in the water column as well as tons of "trash".
There is no one to blame but ourselves and no one to clean it ub but, again, ourselves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
Click to expand...

isn't this the most disgusting thing? That garbage patch is the size of Texas. When i first heard about this, i didn't believe it until i looked on wikipedia.

:sad1:
 
the ocean has an amazing ability to recover all we have to do is leave it alone! if we stopped letting trash go into the oceans over time hurricanes and storms would throw it all back at us on our beaches to clean up the problem is there is still nowhere for it to go this stuff NEVER breaks down.
 
thebanker said:
isn't this the most disgusting thing? That garbage patch is the size of Texas. When i first heard about this, i didn't believe it until i looked on wikipedia.

:sad1:
Click to expand...

I just read over that wikipedia article. I don't suppose anyone knows if it's possible to volunteer with the ECC?

I went on their website, but it's very limited and the contact tab gets a 404 error.
 
greenbean36191 said:
I think everyone who visits the beach should bring a trash bag with them and just spend 5 minutes picking up all the trash they can find. I think people would really be surprised how bad the problem is.

Last year I did a survey of trash on the beach in one of the state parks near here. Since it's in a state park access is limited. It's also groomed every morning to remove the trash. It looks like a very clean beach. Unless you're actually looking for trash you're not likely to notice much. We randomly threw down 40 1x1m quadrats along a 5 mile stretch of beach. Every single one had at least two pieces of plastic in it. Every one! I also spent time picking up all the trash I saw along a half mile stretch of the same beach and got 12 lbs in a little over an hour.
Click to expand...

was that at macarthur beach?

also, unrelated to the quote, what are the possible solutions? i remember that it was said to be impractical to hand collect the garbage, and impossible to net it out without seriously damaging the plankton as well.
 
ctenophors rule said:
was that at macarthur beach?

also, unrelated to the quote, what are the possible solutions? i remember that it was said to be impractical to hand collect the garbage, and impossible to net it out without seriously damaging the plankton as well.
Click to expand...

Well the ECC apparently has two barges that they use to pick up trash from the NP garbage pile.

Personally I think it's disgusting, and an insult to our earth that that is there to begin with.
 
There was a PBS show on Saturday 4-17-2010 actor Edward Norton talk about the plastic in the ocean. Caught the end of the show did any one see it.
 
keegoaz said:
the ocean has an amazing ability to recover all we have to do is leave it alone! if we stopped letting trash go into the oceans over time hurricanes and storms would throw it all back at us on our beaches to clean up the problem is there is still nowhere for it to go this stuff NEVER breaks down.
Click to expand...

actually the plastic breaks down via photodegradation, it becomes a bunch of little bits that float about everywhere.

but yes if we can curb the trash and urban runoff we could do wonders for the ocean.
 
wowkingjames said:
There was a PBS show on Saturday 4-17-2010 actor Edward Norton talk about the plastic in the ocean. Caught the end of the show did any one see it.
Click to expand...


no, but i saw one a year or two ago. I remember the speaker showed a bottle with plastic and zoo plankton where the plastic was more plentiful.
 
greenbean36191 said:
I think everyone who visits the beach should bring a trash bag with them and just spend 5 minutes picking up all the trash they can find. I think people would really be surprised how bad the problem is.
Click to expand...

I have been thinking the exact same thing recently.
Since visiting third world countries in Southeast Asia, the problem has become much more real to me.

I hate using plastic after seeing some moving films covering plastic's effect on the ocean. It's easy to take some steps to reduce plastic consumption... reusable bags, buying food produced locally.. etc. Somehow.. I hope people will start to look at their consumption.
:)
 
Last edited:
billsreef said:
I often think the advent of the plastic bottle is a bad thing. Can't walk a beach without finding lots of them. Glass bottles just got turned into beach glass and eventually ground back to sand.
Click to expand...

I know I posted after this, and I'm not sure why it just occured to me, but this post is making me rethink my daily water bottle. I'm conscious about refilling one water bottle all day and then putting it in the recycling bin, but I have one of those aluminum ones that I could just as easily use... I've just never gotten around to putting it with my backpack.

Also thining about getting the glass bottles that coke has brought back rather than the plastic. It's a little more expensive, but as you pointed out it'll break down easier and though this is a superifical reason...IMO it tastes better out of glass than out of aluminum or plastic :D

I'm thinking about taking a couple days this summer and just going around the beach picking stuff up. Should be fun actually, because it's outdoors and active. I wish more people would do so...
 
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