A problem that never ends

By: Elia Martinez

Plastic had caused an impact in marine debris and wildlife. Due to the massive production of plastic, human disturbance and global climate change the amount of debris in costs is gigantic. It is important to take into consideration the message of marine debris in order to make a prediction of what will happen in the future and know how to manage the situation. There is a big concern and importance on microplastics, it is important to analyze the right data for example if it’s in local or global scale. There were two main sources when looking at large scale marine debris have focused on cleaning all the environment for example, the ICC (International Coastal Clean-Up) and OSPAR (Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic). It is very emotional to see that both of these associations had dedicated their time to clean oceans, coasts, beaches, between others. To be able to study marine debris, surveys of intertidal stranded material is used. In this study details such as debris characterization, level of quantitative information, and size range of debris where taken. To conclude with, we use a very big amount of plastic for many reasons, and our current usage is not sustainable.

Figure 3. Global map of studies about intertidal debris. Taken
from the journal article: Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Stranded
Intertidal Marine Debris: Is There A Picture of Global Change.



References

M. A. Browne, M. G. Chapman, R. C. Thompson, L. A. Zettler, J. Jambeck, and N. J. Mallos. Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Stranded Intertidal Marine Debris: Is There a Picture of Global Change?. Environmental Science Technology. 49: 7082-7094.