Human Impact: Synthetic Sea "plastic in the open ocean"

Plastics, like diamonds, are forever. Plastic floating in the ocean is the number one source of pollution of the world ocean, and 80% of marine debris comes from urban run-off. The problem is many marine birds and fish confuse floating plastic particles with food.
Plastic does not biodegrade, it photo-degrades, or slowly breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, but still remains a polymer. And plastic has been proven to absorb toxins up to one million times background levels in ambient seawater, making the floating plastic a defacto poison pill. Because of their buoyancy and persistance, most of the debris that either entangles sea creatures or found in their stomachs, is made of plastic. The groundbreaking research has been conducted by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, aboard the ORV Alguita under the direction of Captain Chales Moore.
Please visit www.algalita.org or www.plasticdebris.org for detailed information.
Produced and filmed by Bill Macdonald

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Marine
• Debris
• Synthetic
• Sea
• Plastic
• problems
• Watershed
• issue
• Pollution

[pennilesscripple]

this is so heartbreaking. of course consumers need to do all they can, but above all the corporations need to halt plastic production and stop the propaganda campaign that the manufacture of plastic is 'normal' and part of 'progress.' they knew the stuff was toxic back when they first started making it. consumers did not *ask* for plastic, it was forced on them by aggressive production and marketing. we lived just fine without it before the horrible day it was invented.

[007bmac]

Ca shoppers are using cloth bags more and more, and some counties have banned styrofoam take-out containers. So there is some progress and awareness starting. Hopefully it will snowball. The issue is the Pacific rim watareshed. thank you for the interest.

Bill Macdonald

[lesbianknowsbest]

That was very interesting and enlightening. I live in West Hollywood and sometimes we go down to the beach and pick up the trash. I am surprised that the number of beachgoers just leave all their trash on the beach to be swept into the ocean. It is heartbreaking.

[tinimoon]

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ALGALITA is a NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION that relies on public funding to continue researching and reporting. ANYONE WHO WISHES TO SUPPORT Algalita, PLEASE donate 10 US Dollars or more to ALGALITA and place "Youtube" in box that reads "How did you hear...". Thanks!

[BEGOODTOYOURDOG1]

Okay, you have told us how bad it is, now, please tell us WHAT CAN BE DONE. Is it possible to clean this crap out of the sea?

[Asustiina]

It's up to us, not just the people we elect. They are usually after money

[TrueDreamscape]

It pisses me off that the USA is one of the biggest, if not the single biggest contributor to the myriad of problems plauging the environment. It gives all of us Americans a bad name when, in the end, the people we elect don't do anything about it.

[ipouponu]

People better wake up.

[red1100cc]

lotsa junk floatin out there. yuck. i wouldnt wanna swim in that.

[4humanewildlife]

Faved this one and added it to our Playlist; "Ocean In Peril". Good vid Bill, and Algalita is a great org.

[PhilippeDeChampaigne]

I think the point that most people are missing is that this is all done on purpose.

[freshmeatz]

Yup and now we open another noxious oil spilling rig in VA for a drill baby drill bullshit rhetoric to keep the rich, rich and the poor, well poor. These people who run this country do not give one shit about the environment, only act like they do to gain more revenue off the stupid sheeple.

[dickyco2]

Yet another apocalyptic by-product of the Oil Industry, whos only reason for being is to their profits made from filling the sky with climate changing smoke and smothering the Planet in plastic.

This perverted irresponsibility having made them the richest companies in all of human history.