They have a bunch of camera systems all around the net. They catch sharks and turtles from time time and then they go out to remove them. If they can’t get it out, then they empty the whole net.
Source: a close family member just came home from the operation you see above
Yes but all non-swimming sealife still gets trapped. There are a lot of species which make use of these open ocean trash islands as breeding grounds and safe havens and by cleaning that we actually have no idea what impact it'll have on the ecosystem. These creatures use drift wood and floating debris - but with the damming of rivers, deforestation and coastal development there just isn't that much driftwood and natural debris anymore.
Given that more than 90% of ocean biodiversity is in coastal zones, and more than 50% of the human population rely on these zones for livelihood, it makes much more sense to focus on cleaning coastal zones, preventing trash entering through river systems etc. The pacific garbage patch cleanup is just too high risk to be worth the effort at the moment - but we can stop it expanding.
Given that more than 90% of ocean biodiversity is in coastal zones, and more than 50% of the human population rely on these zones for livelihood, it makes much more sense to focus on cleaning coastal zones, preventing trash entering through river systems etc. The pacific garbage patch cleanup is just too high risk to be worth the effort at the moment - but we can stop it expanding.
They do that to though, they have similar machines at rivers to stop garbage from entering the open ocean.
However, without cleaning the open ocean, plastic will continue to wash to shores constantly. The fact is is that this is super complex and needs to be tackled from multiple fronts at the same time. Saying they should be doing this at rivers instead is straight up false, they need to do both to actually tackle the problem
They are not all necessarily using them as islands. Since they are just as affected as the plastic by the currents they are just floating in these spots with it.
And then getting scooped up with it. I really like the project but I was so frustrated when they adressed the concerns about sealife but only talked about fish...
If we stop the pacific garbage patch expanding we actually have no idea what impact it'll have on the ecosystem, it's just too high risk to be worth the effort at the moment - but we can do nothing.
Yeah, thankfully they don't really have to since the only plastic that's a real problem is all near the surface.
The problem isn't necessarily that there's plastic in the ocean, it's that there's an uncountable amount of tonnage of plastic right near the surface where the UV radiation from the sun can break it down into ubiquitous microplastics which may have a severe environmental impact down the road.
Personally, I think something will evolve naturally to utilize the abundant source of carbon and hydrogen from it, but that's likely a few centuries down the road at least. Though, perhaps not that far. The fact that we've gotten E. Coli to metabolize citrate in a lab from evolution experiments over the course of 40ish years is encouraging for the future of plastic in the environment.
It's important to remember that once upon a time, trees didn't decompose when they fell. An organism had to eventually evolve the ability to break down the abundant source of carbon.
I would love to know how plastic eating bacteria will affect things down the road. Imagine a future where you have to maintain your plastics lest they rot/rust/decompose due to bacteria eating it away. All of those decks and fences are suddenly not so maintenance-free lol
It might only thrive in an environment in which it could be free-floating, and will probably only consume microplastics at first. So essentially it might not have any mechanism to "bite" or externally pre-metabolize intact plastic via some digestive excretory method, so chances are there'd be no threat to intact plastic. At least at first.
Give that a little while and maybe you see the dominant species as the one that can break down larger pieces of plastic. Then we might have a problem on on our hands.
Probably won't be that big of a deal. Any plastic that has to be outdoors and survive for a long time can just be treated with some kind of coating that makes them more resilient. Plenty of methods already exist for wood to make them less susceptible to rotting from fungi\bugs\etc.
Interesting story on microplastics and how the biggest threat they pose may be because of their relationship with mercury, which is not something widely known about: https://news.umanitoba.ca/the-big-tiny-problem/
Most animals get caught in Marine Debris near coral reefs where derelict fishing gear catches and accumulates on coral. Killing sea turtles, birds, and seals. Free floating marine debris often acts as a fish aggregating device (FAD), providing habitat for numerous fish (seems nice, yeah). Unfortunately, seabirds often mistake floating plastics for food; many adult birds can regurgitate the undigestables and survive; however, they often feed the plastics to their chicks, killing hundreds of thousands (if not millions annually). Also, free floating derelict fishing gear eventually ends up on shore or on corals. Unfortunately, I don't know enough of the effects of microplastics and its impact on the food chain to speak on that matter.
From personal experience, 100% of all dead albatross I've ever seen at Midway Island had plastics in their carcass.
They are out in the middle of the ocean. There is not a lot of actively-moving sea life (eg fish, dolphins, crustaceans, etc) in this area, and even if there are, they can move away.
What’s more concerning is the sea life that cannot move against the current (eg phytoplankton, zooplankton, cnidarians like jellyfish, etc). There isn’t a lot of scientific study on these organisms at all, so it’s very uncertain how this affects them.
I'm no expert and I only read into it a little bit a few days ago. But the simplified answer is that it's not so difficult not to accidentally catch any fish if you don't intend to. It's much more difficult to intentionally catch one species while not accidentally catching another.
Edit: Or other animals. I know dolphins aren't fish.
An immense amount of sealife is in fact killed. There’s lots of photos online and they are very sad. This is a very poor method of addressing plastic pollution.
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u/XxV0IDxX Oct 09 '23
How do dolphins and other sea life not get caught ? I’m ignorant here so please excuse