Discharges to the sea • Solid waste

Marine environmentalawarenesscourse Discharges to the sea • Solid waste Name • Date and Place

Discharges to the sea • Solid waste Contents Solid waste / marine litter what, sources, where, how much? Consequences of marine litter ecological, economic, safety risks The role of shipping contribution to the problem and to the solution 2 Photo credits: Bryan Toro, Marine Photobank / Green Award Foundation

Marine litter is Solid material discarded, disposed of or abandoned in the marine and coastal environment (UNEP) Photo credits: United Nations Environment Programme

In many regions, plastics constitute between 60 and 80% of all marine litter Regional examples: • The Mediterranean seabed, plastics accounted for 77% of all debris, of which 93% plastic bags • The ocean surface of the North Pacific, plastics accounted for 89% of all floating litter Photo credits: Gavin Parsons / www.gavinparsons.co.uk / Marine Photobank

Facts about plastics (1) • Production is booming: • 5 million tonnes in 1950 • 260 million tonnes in 2007 • 500% increase over past 30 years. • Much plastic thrown away within 1 year

Facts about plastics (2) • Have brought many societal benefits • Break down into ever smaller pieces under influence of sunlight. • Do not biodegrade. • Contain chemical additives (e.g. flame retardants)

A plastic bottletakes 450 years to decompose Illustration credits: Ocean Conservancy

Sources of marine litter: land-based tourism rivers Photo credits: Ziggy Livnat / Oceansart.us (both at Marine Photobank)

Sources of marine litter: ocean-based recreational shipping offshore merchant shipping fishing Photo credits: North Sea Foundation / ProSea

Marine litter found all around the world Alaska Greece Mexico Netherlands Hawaii Cambodia Caribbean South Africa Philippines Brazil Photo credits: see last slide

Marine littercan travel greatdistances • 1992: cargo ship leaving China loses 29,000 bath toys in the Pacific Ocean • 2007: ducks found on British beaches (17,000 miles further) still fully intact

Marine litter even found in remote, pristine areas Uninhabited island, Philippines Photo credits: ProSea

Fate of marine litter entering the ocean Of all litter that enters the sea • 15% keeps floating on the surface • 15% washes ashore (beaches, other coastal areas) • 70% ends up on the seabed (Estimates of ‘Save the North Sea project’)

Waste on the ocean surface: pools of garbage • two continent-sized areas of floating plastic in the Pacific Ocean • Winds and sea currents drive marine litter together Photo credits: Lindsey Hoshaw, Algalita Marine Research Foundation / ProSea

Pools of garbage: also many microplastics • debris collected from Pacific pools of garbage: large and small • In some areas, 6 times more plastics than plankton • Cleaning up very difficult (size of plastic particles, logistics, …) Photo credits: Algalita Marine Research Foundation / James Leichter, Marine Photobank

Waste on beaches / coastal areas Regional estimates: • New Zealand: 100,000 plastic pellets per km2 of beach near industrial centers. • Sweden: 73,000 m3 of marine litter gathered on 300 km of rocky shores. Photo credits: Jacki Clark / North Sea Foundation / ProSea

Waste on the seabed Regional estimates: • European seabed: large marine debris ranged up to 101,000 pieces per km2 • Tokyo Bay: plastics made up 80-85% of the seabed Photo credits: Steve Spring, Marine Photobank / NOAA, David Burdick / ProSea

Why is marine litter a problem? Some animals make clever use of marine litter Photo credits: Howard Peters 2008 / Natalia Semko (both at Marine Photobank)

Ecological damage However for most organisms, marine litter has serious consequences: • Entanglement • Ingestion • Dispersal of invasive species • Smothering of seabed communities Next slides focus on entanglement and ingestion

Entanglement (fish) Photo credits: Dale Galvin / Martin Porta (both at Marine Photobank)

Entanglement (sea birds) Photo credits: Ecomare / David Cayless, Marine Photobank

Entanglement (sea turtles) Photo credit: John Chinuntdet, 2007, Marine Photobank

Ingestion Litter sometimes resembles food Photo credits: ProSea / Rebecca Hosking, BBC

Ingestion (sea turtles) Plastic removed from gut of dead leatherback turtle Photo credit: P. Richardson

Ingestion (laysan albatross) Photo credits: Michael Lusk, US Fish and Wildlife Service / Claire Fackler, NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries , Marine Photobank

What happens to plastics once they are ingested? • Some species: regurgitated or excreted with faeces • Other species: plastics remain inside body for ever • Plastics have no nutritional value  starvation • Added chemicals absorbed by the animal’s tissues Especially worrying when microplasticsare ingested by small animals (chemicals bioaccumulatein food chain)

Ingestion and the growing problem of microplastics Microplastics: • pieces of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters in diameter • Sources: • large pieces of plastic litter break down • scrub soaps / cosmetics • ‘industrial pellets’ Photo credit: Karin Malmstrom, Marine Photobank

Microplastics with attached chemicals are ingested by small animals at base of food chain microplastic (10μm -750μm) ingested by beach flea Photo credits: Richard Thompson, University of Plymouth

(Toxic) chemicals become more concentrated in larger animals higher in the food chain (humans included) Credits: Illustration - ProSea / Photo - J. Simpson-MSC, Marine Photobank

Economic damage and safety risks • Clean up costs • Loss of tourism • Entanglement of propellors • Damage to fishing industry Photo credits: KIMO / Lawrence Alex Wu, Marine Photobank

Contribution of shipping to the marine litter problem Some estimates: • Worldwide: shipping discharges 5 million litter items into the oceans every year (UNEP). • Northern Australia: 85% of litter found on the shores originated from shipping (fishing, merchant shipping and recreational boaters). • Chile: commercial shipping activities responsible for a large part of the floating marine debris (mostly plastics). • North Sea: high concentrations of plastic in the guts of the Northern Fulmar, clearly related to areas with high shipping activity. Estimates uncertain, but little doubt that waste disposal by ships is one of the important sources of marine litter

Regulations: MARPOL Annex V • New rules in 2013 (revision) • Zero discharge policy (except food waste, certain cargo residues, …). New Annex V discharge requirements for solid waste (as of September 2012: definitive requirements to be published by IMO in the course of 2012)

Contribution of shipping to the solution Operational procedures and technical measures: • Port reception facilities • Garbage record book • Incinerators • Compactors Photo credits: Port of Rotterdam / Atlas Incinerators

Contribution of shipping to the solution The human element: • Interviews in North Sea countries: fishermen, seafarers, offshore workers and leisure craft owners • Top four reasons for littering based on behavior and habit, not on practical issues • bad habit, sometimes part of the ‘old culture’ onboard ships Save the North Sea, 2004 Photo credit: Ocean Beacons International (OBI)

Photo credits slide ‘marine litter found all around the world’: • Marine Photobank (continued) • Bryan Toro • ColinZylka • Gavin Parsons / www.gavinparsons.co.uk • Maleen • Paul Ferber • TanyaBarcella • Ted Raynor • William Rodriguez Schepis, Instituto EcoFaxina • North Sea Foundation • ProSea Foundation

Discharges to the sea • Solid waste