MARINE DEBRIS: ITS SOURCE AND SOLUTION

May 2016 Trending GLB Admin

By Jerome A. Koncel Our lakes and rivers may be full of fish and other aquatic species, but they’re also contaminated with massive amounts of marine debris. “Marine debris is a widespread problem across the United States and the world,” said Sarah Lowe, Great Lakes Regional Coordinator for the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Marine Debris Program and biologist for Freestone Environmental Services in Oak Harbor, Ohio. The problem’s scope: A recent study by the University of Georgia illustrates the magnitude of the problem. It estimates that 8 million metric tons of plastic enter our oceans every year. That’s no misprint. Plastic is the most common type of marine debris found around the world and is a huge problem for the Great Lakes, Lowe noted. A few years ago, GLB published an article by Sherri Mason, a Ph.D. chemist from SUNY-Fredonia, who did research on microbeads in the Great Lakes. Microbeads are a type of microplastic debris that is found in many cosmetics and personal care products. Mason’s research discovered that plastic particle counts reached one million plastic particle parts per square mile in Lake Erie, with higher counts found in Lake Ontario. “To put these counts into perspective,” Mason noted, “aside from one published number taken in the North Atlantic Ocean, these counts within the Great Lakes are among the highest ever recorded in the world.” The research clearly shows the scope of the plastic marine debris problem in the Great Lakes; however, that amount doesn’t pose the greatest threat to humans. The real danger stems from this fact: plastics adsorb toxic chemicals out of its surrounding waters, and the Great Lakes are well-known harbingers of these toxic chemicals. Why is this so bad? Lowe responded by saying that the NOAA Marine Debris program has conducted research showing that plastics persist for decades in aquatic and marine habitats and can adsorb toxic chemicals that have the potential to be transferred to marine life when ingested.

Photo provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

In recent years, in response to research done by Illinois/Indiana Sea Grant, Mason, and the Five Gyres Institute, several Great Lakes states have passed legislation to ban cosmetics and facial creams which use microbeads in their products. This legislation was recently superseded by federal legislation passed earlier this year requiring the same thing, i.e., the removal of microbeads from these products. The response: In her 2014 article in this magazine, Mason pointed out that while the threat posed by plastic pollution of the Great Lakes is real, it’s also very preventable. If humans are the source of plastics pollution, they are also the best way to prevent the spread of plastics into the Great Lakes and other waterways. One important way to stop marine debris from occurring is through education. Lowe said that NOAA educates the public via its website, through speaking engagements, attending school and public events, developing prevention curriculums, and by funding prevention through education and outreach grants each year. A second important effort is by encouraging people to practice the “three Rs:” reduce the amount of waste one produces; reuse items when possible; and choose recyclable instead of disposable items. Lowe urges everyone to recycle as much as possible, and she also encourages communities to participate in cleanups and record the information using the Marine Debris Tracker App. Lowe said that NOAA has taken the lead in bringing the Great Lakes marine debris community together by creating the Great Lakes Land-based Marine Debris Action Plan, the first of its kind for this region. The action plan provides a road map for scientists, governments, stakeholders, and decision-makers to free the Great Lakes, its coasts, people, and wildlife of marine debris. Lowe said that the action plan offers 53 actions under four goals that the Great Lakes marine debris community will undertake between 2014 and 2019. So far, contributors have worked on 34 actions and completed 5 of them. NOAA’s Marine Debris Program sponsors two national grant competitions each year, and several Great Lakes projects have won these awards, Lowe noted. Some examples are the following: • In Detroit, marine debris has been removed from Fordson Island and Belle Isle. • In the Wisconsin waters of Lake Superior, anglers have come together to prevent derelict fishing gear from appearing. •In Cleveland, the city is developing an awareness campaign to address marine debris on Lake Erie beaches. For those interested in finding out more information, visit NOAA’s Marine Debris Program website. Lowe pointed out that recreational sportsfishermen could play a major role in preventing debris by recycling their broken fishing lines, which are serious entanglement hazards. She added that many popular fishing spots and marinas have monofilament recycling containers that anglers can use to drop off their lines. Recreational boaters can also help by choosing reusable packaging and utensils and securing those items that are likely to get blown overboard. They should also learn how to avoid commercial fishing nets. Clean Marinas help educate the public about the marine debris program and create ways to mitigate it. Many Clean Marinas in Ohio, for example, have recycling containers for trash that can be recycled, while also placing proper disposal receptacles for other items. These marinas also have monofilament recycling containers for fishermen, as well as educational signage on marine debris.

Photo provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

One major problem left: While efforts are being made to prevent marine debris from entering the Great Lakes and surrounding waterways, one major marine debris problem seems to have escaped the industry’s net: fiberglass boats. It was 50 years ago that the industry first introduced fiberglass boats into the marketplace. Well, sad to say, those boats are ending their useful lives. Owners of these boats and the industry itself are asking the question: What do we do with these vessels? The answer is that there is no specific way of dealing with them, other than abandoning them or putting them into existing landfills at an exorbitant cost. As a result, thousands of abandoned and derelict vessels (ADVs) litter ports, waterways, and estuaries all over the country, including those of the Great Lakes. Lowe said, “ADVs are a pervasive problem threatening our oceans, coasts, and waterways by obstructing navigational channels, causing harm to the environment, and diminishing commercial and recreational activities.” What exacerbates this problem is the lack of any positive initiatives to solve the problem and the legal inconsistencies pertaining to abandoned and derelict vessels varying from state to state. To understand the differences between states, NOAA has launched the ADV Infohub, which is a central source of information regarding ADVs, the policies that surround them, and how each state deals with them. The site also contains information about legislation, funding, case studies, and contact information. Why not recycle these old, derelict and abandoned vessels? It’s a simple enough solution, and an option that many people and organizations have thought about, but moving it from concept to reality has proven to be an insurmountable obstacle. A viable option for handling ADVs is scrapyards. They will accept these boats, but they either don’t or won’t go out of their way to pick them up and deliver them to the scrapyard. They will remove electronic gear from these boats for their higher monetary values, but they don’t know what to do with the fiberglass hulls except to crush them and send them to landfills. And that’s the best outcome. The reality of ADVs is that many of them end up littering our marinas, roadsides, and backyards. An article in the February 2016 issue of Soundings Trade Only, a B2B monthly publication for boat and engine builders, boat dealers, boatyards, and marinas, described this problem as the “dead-boat disposal crunch” noting that it is a real problem, that efforts to solve it are ineffective, and so nothing is really being done about it.

Photo provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Three things need to happen, and they need to occur almost simultaneously to create a recycling marketplace for fiberglass boats. There first has to be an efficient, cost-effective way to recycle boats,and none currently exists. Second, there has to be a marketplace for the recycled fiberglass, and unlike for paper and plastics, there is no marketplace for selling recycled fiberglass. Third, government has to put money and manpower behind the boat recycling effort, but federal legislators are more concerned with other issues. One additional piece of information that is relevant to the subject: the cost of removing ADVs, compressing them, and sending them to landfills is not cheap and is probably one of the major reasons why ADVs litter our waterways. Reflection In one of his recent pastoral letters, Pope Francis said that we have one planet to live on, we only have one Earth to protect, and it is our responsibility to protect and sustain the earth and planet not only for ourselves, but also for our children and their children for generations to come. Pope Francis articulates the premise of this article, which is that while marine debris is a significant problem in the Great Lakes, all of us are the sources of marine debris and polluting our fresh waters. As Professor Mason noted, if we are the problem then we can also be the solution by preventing marine debris from occurring.

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MARINE DEBRIS: ITS SOURCE AND SOLUTION

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