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One Facebook posting I saw this week, claimed that 46 percent of the plastic in that massive area, actually consists of fishing nets and fishing-related items. Can't recall if it was the "Break Free from Plastic" site on Facebook, or another source.
It’s not bs. Nearly every fish and invertebrate in the ocean goes through a stage called meroplankton when they are a tiny drifting organism and become a member of the plastisphere for a key portion of their life. If we just go in and scoop up your “goldmine” we could literally destroy the entire ecosystem. Not just the plastisphere but have cascading effects through out he entire ocean.
I know all the armchair scientist online think they know more than literally all the oceanographer,s ecologists and ocean engineers dedicated to this problem, but it’s really just Dunning Kruger at its finest.
So what did meroplankton do before floating plastic accumulated in our oceans?
I would think that the effect of salt and sunlight causing toxins to leach out of all this plastic would trump the needs of the meroplankton to hide amongst all that debris.
There are bacteria that can live on mercury. Possibly we could dump a few thousand tons of mercury in the ocean to grow these bacteria to compensate for the loss of all the small organisms the plastic is killing.
So what did meroplankton do before floating plastic accumulated in our oceans?
I would think that the effect of salt and sunlight causing toxins to leach out of all this plastic would trump the needs of the meroplankton to hide amongst all that debris.
Sargassum, other natural floating debris, etc.
The plastic also absorb massive amounts of persistent organic pollutants. Meanwhile meroplankton is literally the young of the year for stocks that are already in danger from overfishing. Removing an entire cohort could critically destabilize the stock and end in functional extinction. Did I mention it is complicated?
I think the OP (and us) learned a 3rd lesson.....that you are not a pleasant person and incapable of getting a point across without sounding like a jerk; not saying you are, just that your posts above make you sound like one.
If that gets people to acknowledge that they are uninformed about something a trade I am willing to make.
The plastic also absorb massive amounts of persistent organic pollutants. Meanwhile meroplankton is literally the young of the year for stocks that are already in danger from overfishing. Removing an entire cohort could critically destabilize the stock and end in functional extinction. Did I mention it is complicated?
No you didn't but I believe you!
I have to ask. Do you really believe we should make plastic a component of ocean ecosystems as a matter of course? For one thing it;s still a tradeoff as the plastic may be absorbing some toxins and leaching others. Whatever positive side there is to plastic absorbing toxins my thought would be it is minimal as the enormous landmass of plastic in the Pacific can only be beneficial to that specific area and logically I would think that it would be more beneficial closer to the locations where these absorbed toxins are introduced. Say near river mouths and ocean outflows.
It’s not bs. Nearly every fish and invertebrate in the ocean goes through a stage called meroplankton when they are a tiny drifting organism and become a member of the plastisphere for a key portion of their life. If we just go in and scoop up your “goldmine” we could literally destroy the entire ecosystem. Not just the plastisphere but have cascading effects through out he entire ocean.
I know all the armchair scientist online think they know more than literally all the oceanographer,s ecologists and ocean engineers dedicated to this problem, but it’s really just Dunning Kruger at its finest.
I had to read up a bit more about meroplankton to get a better understanding of the types of locations where it's found in greatest abundance. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meroplankton
Quote:
....... Meroplankton diversity and abundance are affected by many factors. Seasonal and spatial variations are among some of the main causes of such variability. A study which was conducted in Dunkellin Estuary, determined that spawning times of many species are timed to maximize food availability at a particular time of year, while minimizing presence of other species which exploit the same food source. Diversity and abundance are depth dependent qualities. Generally, shallow coastal waters contain far greater numbers of meroplankton than deep, open ocean waters. Most abundant regions occur at depths between 0 and 200 meters of the water column, where light penetration is highest. Availability of sunlight allows for proliferation of phytoplankton, which serves as one of the major food sources for meroplankton. Deep oceanic waters show significantly lower abundance than shelf regions, due to poor light penetration. ........
So if I'm understanding the bolded parts correctly, and understanding that meroplankton are depth dependent, would it be such a great interference to scoop up the debris patches that are in the gyres way out in the middle of the deep, open ocean waters? Wouldn't there just naturally be a lot less meroplankton there than there is in the waters closer to shelf regions / shorelines where the meroplankton get their food?
Now, with regard to what's happening closer to shorelines, have you seen this recent report and video about the horror that has happened in the waters around Bali? When I say horror I'm not exaggerating because it truly is horrific and makes me weep: Diver's video in Bali exposes extent of plastic pollution in the sea | Metro News
Personally I feel that when plastic pollution in shallower waters around islands and mainland shorelines gets as bad as the devestation that's happened around Bali, it's already too late to worry about saving meroplankton because the hellish waste land and waters shown there looks like there's nothing for meroplankton to survive on anyway. I doubt there is much, if any, meroplankton or other living organisms to be found there that are able to find nourishment or survive in that toxic soup of plastic pollution. If a region like that is ever going to be brought back to life again then all of that garbage needs to be removed from there regardless of whether or not it's removal will disrupt the cycles of other possible (but doubtful) planktons and other living organisms that are (maybe) presently there. Otherwise I'm thinking it will become a permanent dead zone that will just get bigger and bigger.
How much of this was garbage tossed into the ocean from ships and shore and how much is from earthquakes and tsunamis? Both Navy ships I was on in the 90s were very strict about plastic trash not being thrown from the ship. Trash like plastic and chemicals were held on the ship until next port visit. Some ships had a plastic compression machine that heated and pressed plastic trash into a round disc making it easy to handle and store for longer periods of time.
Considering the current size of the pile, this could become a shipping navigation issue and needs to be addressed soon.
I'd venture that the vast majority comes from land, since most of the world's population lives near water, and all the plastic they've left behind.
According to National Geographic:
"About 80% of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land-based activities in North America and Asia. Trash from the coast of North America takes about six years to reach the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, while trash from Japan and other Asian countries takes about a year.
...Not all trash floats on the surface. Denser debris can sink centimeters or even several meters beneath the surface, making the vortex’s area nearly impossible to measure. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean." https://www.nationalgeographic.org/e...garbage-patch/
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