On Oprah’s Earth Day episode this past season, I was shocked to learn that the largest garbage dump is not on land, but in the ocean. Referred to as the “Pacific Garbage Patch”, it is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of suspended plastic and other debris — approximately 3.5 million tons — that have been trapped by currents. It is roughly twice the size of Texas! At some points, it is 90 feet deep.
Much of our waste today is comprised of plastic that does not biodegrade. This waste accumulates in swirling seas of debris, where plastic is, on average, six times the weight of that of plankton, the basic food organism of the ocean; where birds and mammals are dying of starvation and dehydration with bellies full of plastics; where fish are ingesting toxins at such a rate that soon they will no longer be safe to eat.
If our waters are now contaminated with the toxic chemicals from plastic and other waste, then what does this mean for our food chain? Never mind what this means for what quality food chain we are bequeathing our children… Is any water safe to drink? Is any seafood safe to eat? Some Beluga whales have been diagnosed with breast cancer, from the chemicals that they are ingesting.
My intention with this post is to bring more awareness to how polluted our waters are with chemicals from plastic so that we can second guess how much seafood we consume and second guess how much waste we create. As Fabien Cousteau, grandson of the undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau, said on Oprah:
If not for yourself, do it for your children. “You wouldn’t let a child open up a cabinet under the sink and start tasting the chemicals down there,” Fabien says. “So why would you dump those chemicals down the drain and have them end up on your plate, which you then feed to your child?”
Fabien says the Pacific Ocean garbage swirl isn’t unique. In fact, every ocean and many major rivers have them. “This one happens to be the largest one,” he says.
For some informative videos on the pacific garbage patch, please click below. I re-watch them whenever I need a reminder that I should be decreasing my consumption of seafood, plastic and stuff in general.
{ 2 trackbacks }