[GreenYes] Can you feed the stuff to the fish?

[RicAnthony@no.address]

_The plastic garbage pit of the Pacific Trash particles, looking like  food, 
imperil sea life_ 
(http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/06/OCEANS.TMP)  - _Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment  Writer_ 
(mailto:jkay@no.address) 
Monday, November 6, 2006  
Plastic trash caught up in a swirling vortex in the North Pacific  Ocean 
between California and Hawaii is killing sea life, choking birds and fish  and 
entangling seals and sea lions, a new Greenpeace report says. 
 
Soda six-pack rings, plastic bags, condoms, beach toys and stray nets -- much 
 of it washed off U.S. shores and some tossed directly into the ocean -- 
float in  a mix of plastic pollution that injures hungry animals as big as whales 
and as  small as zooplankton, according to a report by the international 
environmental  group.  
Scientists traveling aboard the Greenpeace vessel Esperanza said Sunday they  
now are gathering firsthand data on threats to the world's oceans from  
pollution, overfishing and whaling. As part of that investigation, they released  
the report, a compilation of studies published since 1990 on plastics in the  
marine environment.  
The current research examines plastic as it weathers into particles the size  
of sand grains, so small they become part of the tissue of ocean organisms.  
"These small fragments of plastics may pose more of a threat to marine life  
because they resemble the prey of lots of organisms -- everything from  
zooplankton to whales,'' said Adam Walters, a chemist speaking by telephone  aboard 
the vessel and an author of the report.  
These bits can fill the stomachs of birds and other sea creatures that  
mistake them for food, causing malnutrition and eventually starvation. The  
researchers are measuring the distribution of the particles as they that float  or 
fall to the ocean floor.  
This latest report on plastic accumulating in the North Pacific comes just  
three days after a study in the journal Science concluded that, if trends  
continue, the world's fish stocks are headed for severe depletion by 2050 as a  
result of global warming, fishing and pollution.  
The Esperanza, headed for San Diego, is conducting research in a Texas-sized  
patch of ocean called the North Pacific Gyre near the northwestern Hawaiian  
Islands. As winds and currents circulate clockwise in the oceans, this area  
stays calm in the summer and becomes a collection basin for plastics and other  
litter.  
Over the past three decades, marine biologists have found plastic bags  
blocking the digestive tracts of sea lions, discarded fishing line strangling  sea 
turtles and nets cutting off the flippers of manatees.  
The research on micro-particles is new.  
Since last March, scientists on the Esperanza have sampled plastic particles  
in the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, Red Sea, Indian Ocean and near the  
Philippines. Next come the Sea of Cortez and the South Pacific.  
Thilo Maack, a marine biologist with Greenpeace in Hamburg, Germany, also  
speaking from the ship, said he has been diving for samples.  
"Between the plankton, you see the red, yellow and all colored plastics  
floating. We find the plastic in the tissues of animals. For us, this is a very  
worrying signal,'' because it could be accumulating in the food web, Maack sad. 
 
They often find "ghost nets,'' abandoned floating nets filled with fish.  
"The marine mammals try to feed on these fishes, and get entangled in ropes  
and loose net parts. Eventually they drown because they can't get to the  
surface,'' Maack said.  
The report, which doesn't contain the results of the research on  
micro-plastic, offers solutions.  
Floating plastic debris can be cut worldwide by cleaning beaches, reducing  
garbage in storm drains, improving the handling and transport of raw pellet and 
 other plastic materials, and adopting an international treaty prohibiting  
vessels from dumping trash at sea, according to the report.  
The ultimate solution lies in policies that allow the use of plastics and  
synthetics only in cases where they are absolutely necessary, it said.  
Other findings in the report compiled by Greenpeace are as follows:  
-- At least 267 different species, including 111 species of seabirds, are  
known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of plastic rubbish.  
-- Plastics consistently make up 60 to 80 percent of all marine debris. The  
seabed, particularly near coasts, is littered with plastic bags.  
-- About 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean washes in from rivers, storm  
drains, beaches, sewage treatment plants and other sources; about 20 percent  
gets dumped in the ocean from vessels and fishing boats.  
-- Much of the plastic litter in oceans comes from derelict fishing debris,  
since plastic and other synthetic materials have replaced natural fibers over  
the past 35 years. 

In a message dated 11/2/2006 12:22:28 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
RicAnthony@no.address writes:

In a  message dated 11/2/2006 12:06:44 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, 
_stevew@no.address (mailto:stevew@no.address)   writes:think 
bio-plastic bottles are a great idea except the "recycling  problem" is 
definitely a concern.....  writes:think bio-plastic bottles are a great idea except 
the "recycling  problem" is defini

I worry  about all the food service containers and utensils that are dumped 
into  the environment becoming fish and bird food before totally  decomposed.
Rick






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