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1、The Effects of the Eastern Garbage Patch on Hawaiian SeabirdsSlone DeLong, Jacob McCully, and Heather ToneyNSCI 361Dr. Sean TerryFebruary 12, 2010Introduction Pollution has become increasingly relevant across the globe as its detrimental effects are discovered in the air, in the ground, in the world
2、s water supply, and in the vast numbers of marine species, like seabirds. Since the creation of plastics and the “plastic boom,” which began after World War II and has continued into the present day, plastic pollution has steadily increased. This, coupled with the fact that plastics take hundreds of
3、 years to break down (and they absorb a mass amount of chemicals), produces a problem for the environment and marine animals. A place where plastic pollution is at its worst lies just 500 nautical miles southwest off the coast of California and stretches to the waters west of Japan: the North Pacifi
4、c Gyre. The pollution in the gyre has grown to nearly twice the size of the continental United States and has caused problems for marine life and has lowered the water quality in this region (Kostigen, 2008). Within the gyre, a large patch of marine debris, composed mainly of plastics, has formed in
5、 between Hawaii and California called the Eastern Garbage Patch. Accompanied with ocean currents, trade winds, and storms, marine debris is swept out of the garbage patch and is carried westward toward North Pacific islands like Hawaii. Once the debris reaches the Hawaiian Islands, it produces a lar
6、ge build up of plastics and other trash on Hawaiis beaches and can lead to harmful effects on the environment. This marine debris that collects on land and in the water poses a health threat to marine wildlife: namely Hawaiian seabirds. Large, surface-feeding seabirds, like the Black-footed and Lays
7、an Albatross, that can cover a large range of ocean and land easily mistake floating plastics for food and are at a high risk of ingesting these plastics. This can cause serious problems with the birds themselves and can be passed on to their offspring. Problems with marine debris from the Eastern G
8、arbage Patch can even accumulate up the food chain and cause hazards to humans, as well. Thesis StatementThe long-term success of the Black-footed and Laysan Albatross is threatened the most by malnutrition and puncture injuries in the stomach rather than toxins absorbed from plastics during ingesti
9、on of marine debris. Literature ReviewTrashed by Captain Charles Moore was published in 2003 regarding his research conducted in the North Pacific Gyre concerning marine debris. Moore puts a light on the ever-increasing size of the gyre and the endless impacts marine debris can have on people, anima
10、ls, and the environment. Moores research of the gyre is built on previous research of the gyre and it helps describe how the North Pacific Gyre works and what causes it accumulate so much trash and plastic. This article is well-written and researched and describes the different kinds of trash found
11、in the gyre and explains why the marine debris found there is mainly plastic.Better Planet Garbage Patch by Thomas Kostigen was published a little over a year ago in 2008. Kostigen wrote this article after a first-hand experience with Captain Moore on a trawling excursion through the plastic-infeste
12、d waters of the Eastern Garbage Patch. Kostigen gives credibility to Moores research and builds on it by giving fresh research and data that Moore has produced since 2003. This article is well-written and contains first-hand information regarding the North Pacific Gyre and the Eastern Garbage Patch.
13、 Marine birds and plastic pollution by Marie Y Azzarello and Edward S. Van Fleet was published in 1987 in order to convey a clear perspective on what types of marine debris accumulate, where it accumulates, and the harmful effects of marine debris when ingested by seabirds. This study goes in to det
14、ail on the types of chemicals found on plastics and what internal damage these chemicals cause to seabirds and their offspring. Furthermore, this article heavily focuses on the damages done to seabirds after ingesting plastics in the realm of malnutrition and physical trauma, like punctures to the s
15、tomach lining. Azzarello and Van Fleet back up their arguments with detailed autopsies of adult and young seabirds alike. They discuss the types of plastics found inside the bodies of these birds and the injuries caused from the plastics that contributed to the death of these marine animals. The Big
16、 Island Attracts Plastic Trash is a newscast by Howard Dashefsky conducted in November of 2007. This newscast discusses the large quantities of marine debris build-up on the windward side of the big island, specifically Kamilo Beach. This newscast interviews Captain Moore and discusses the lingering
17、 problem of marine debris in Hawaii and the effects it is having on the environment of the island itself.Seabirds as Indicators of Plastic Pollution in the North Pacific by Hannah Nevins was published in 2005 for the Plastic Debris Rivers to the Sea Conference in that same year. Nevins, with the hel
18、p of other researchers, is able to accurately discuss the problems associated with marine debris in seabirds of the North Pacific Ocean. Nevins thoroughly reviews studies on different seabirds, including the Laysan Albatross, and the detrimental effects spurred in seabirds which ingest or become ent
19、angled in plastic. Body of ResearchSynthetic polymers, commonly referred to as plastics, have been entering the marine environment now for more than fifty years. This began after World War II when plastic products were beginning to be made in high quantities (Kostigen, 2008). However, within the pas
20、t three decades, the deposition rate of plastic has surpassed the rate of production; and plastics are now one of the most common pollutants in ocean waters and beaches around the world (Moore, 2008). Between 1960 and 2000, the world production of plastic resins increased by 25 times, while the reco
21、very of these plastics remained below five percent (Moore, 2008). These plastics, combined with many kinds of marine debris to form marine debris in the worlds oceans and seas.The problem of marine debris in the Northern Pacific Ocean starts with understanding the North Pacific Gyre (See Figure 1).
22、It is one of five major subtropical gyres in the world and is created by large flows of air moving from warm areas, like the tropics, to colder regions at the ice caps (Moore, 2003). It is an area of high pressure that is located in the central Pacific Ocean above Hawaii, between Japan and the mainl
23、and United States (Moore, 2003). The air within the North Pacific Gyre is heated and rises high into the atmosphere. “The rotation of the Earth on its axis moves the heated air westward as it rises, then eastward once it cools and descends at around 30 degrees north latitude, creating a huge, clockw
24、ise-rotating mass of air” (Moore, 2003). In turn, this creates a surface current on the ocean that spins clockwise, as well. This causes the winds in the center of the gyre to be calm, which allows a large amount of marine debris to accumulate (Moore, 2003). FIGURE 1 - “Rise Above Plastics” by Unnat
25、i Ghandi sea-of-synthetic-trash.html The journey of a simple plastic cup that gets blown into the ocean off of the coast of California will enhance the understanding of how marine debris makes its way into the North Pacific Gyre. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reports that 80 percen
26、t of all marine debris that washes ashore originally comes from “harmless”, shore-based activities such as picnics and beach outings (Kostigen, 2008). Other sources of marine debris include storm water discharges, sewer overflows, solid waste disposals and landfills, offshore mineral and oil explora
27、tion and dumping from cruise ships and other commercial vessels (Leous, 2005). Once this cup reaches the ocean, it will get caught in the California Current and make its way down the coast towards Central America (Kostigen, 2008). Somewhere off of the coast of Mexico, the cup will meet up with the N
28、orth Equatorial Current, which flows towards Asia (Kostigen, 2008). Off the coast of Japan, the Kuroshio Current comes in and takes the cup back eastward until the North Pacific Current comes into the picture and pulls the cup east of Hawaii into the Eastern Garbage Patch (Kostigen, 2008). The Easte
29、rn Garbage Patch is one of two garbage patches with a heavy concentration of marine debris within the gyre and it is not to be confused with the Western Garbage Patch. The Western Garbage Patch lies off the coast of Japan and the Eastern Garbage Patch is between Hawaii and the coast of California (K
30、ostigen, 2008). The Eastern Garbage Patch draws quite a bit of attention because of its sheer size and the fact that it draws large amounts of marine debris from one of the biggest marine debris producers on the planet, the United States (Kostigen, 2008). According to oceanographer, Curtis Ebbesmeye
31、r, the Eastern Garbage Patch is estimated to be about the size of Texas (Moore, 2003). Subsequently, the North Pacific Gyre itself is about twice the size of the continental United States. Many of the studies regarding marine debris and the effects that it has on the environment have been conducted
32、by Captain Charles Moore of Long Beach, California. Moores interest in this area has stemmed from his childhood and continued through his life as he has always been around the water and has witnessed the harmful effects of marine debris (Moore, 2003). In 1994, he established the Algalita Marine Rese
33、arch Foundation, dedicated to research, education, and restoration of the marine environment (Moore, 2003). Moore discovered the Eastern Garbage Patch in 1997 during the Transpacific Yacht Race (Kostigen, 2008). He took a shortcut through the gyre and was confronted with plastic and as Moore puts it
34、, “as far as the eye could see,” (Moore, 2003). Since 1997, Moore has become increasingly passionate about investigating this garbage patch and creating awareness to the science community and the rest of the world. Moore, now in his early sixties is still active in his research regarding marine debr
35、is.Moore was surprised to find that the research he was conducting was relatively new. In fact, the earliest studies start in the early 1990s with W. James Ingraham Jr., an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (Moore, 2003). The reason that the North Pacific Gy
36、re went so long without being noticed is the fact that it did not appear on satellite images (Marks, 2008). The marine debris floats just below the water to a depth of roughly 10 meters, which makes the garbage patches visible only at the surface (Marks, 2008). Ingrahams studies suggest that marine
37、debris reaching the North Pacific Gyre might revolve around in it for up to sixteen years or more (Moore, 2003). Moore describes that most plastics do not biodegrade like other garbage, but instead, the bacteria-immune plastic “photodegrades” (Moore, 2003). This is a process where sunlight breaks th
38、e plastic into increasingly smaller pieces. The cold ocean water and the fact that plastic is comprised of chemically bonded carbon, hydrogen and oxygen molecules make the process of photodegrading extremely slow (Leous, 2005). The degradation process can take hundreds of years. Therefore, plastics
39、account for anywhere from 60 to 80 percent of marine debris (Gregory, 1997). And for over a half century, plastics have been collecting and fragmenting in the gyre to create an enormous “plastic soup.” From 1999 to 2005, the amount of plastic in the Eastern Garbage Patch has risen from .002 grams of
40、 plastic per square meter to .004 grams of plastic per square meter of water (Kostigen, 2008).Environmental problems, on the land and in the water, have spurred because of this large collection of marine debris within the North Pacific Gyre that include items such as six-pack rings, beverage bottles
41、 and cans, plastic bags and bottle caps. Beaches on the Hawaiian Islands have succumbed to large amounts of plastic and marine debris. Kamilo Beach, on the windward side of the big island of Hawaii, was once a place where Native Hawaiians came to find logs for their voyaging canoes (Dashefsky, 2007)
42、. Now, it has become a collection site for the plastic of the Pacific and has coined the name “Plastic Beach” (Dashefsky, 2007). The reason for this large collection of marine debris on the windward side of the island is due to the trade winds, combining with a strong North Equatorial Current, bring
43、ing the marine debris from the Eastern Garbage Patch (Miller, 2002). Marine debris can also reach land when storms flush marine debris and plastic from gyres, like the North Pacific Gyre (Algalita, n.d.). According to Captain Moore, “This plastic goes down a foot deep. At one time these were toothbr
44、ushes, pens, cigarette lighters, plastic bottles, plastic caps, but not theyre plastic fragments and pre-production plastic pellets, together forming a new kind of sand: plastic sand here on the beaches of Hawaii” (Dashefsky, 2007). A November 2009 interview with Captain Moore revealed that lava flo
45、wing from Mauna Loa, the worlds largest volcano, is mixing with this plastic sand to form sheets of a new type of rock on the south shore of the island (Moore, 2009). Not only does such a mass collection of pollution on a beach lead to harmful effects on the environment, it can lead to things such a
46、 decline in tourism.In 2002, researchers at NASA used a satellite that uses microwave radar to measure winds near the ocean surface. Astonishingly, they found that Hawaiis wake from the trade winds and the North Equatorial Current stretches almost 8000 kilometers across the ocean (Miller, 2002). Thi
47、s large wake results in a warm counter current called the “Hawaiian Lee Counter Current” that rushes back towards Hawaii (Miller, 2002). This counter current forms because of the warm water left behind from Hawaiis wake mixing with the cold waters of the Pacific to form a surface current that flows
48、back towards the leeward side of Hawaii (Miller, 2002). This counter current allows marine debris to collect on a variety of beaches that surround each of the Hawaiian Islands. And, in turn, exposes even more marine wildlife to the harmful effects of plastic debris.Serious problems have also prompte
49、d for marine animals that ingest plastics or become entangled in them. The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy states that at least 267 species have been affected by marine debris all around the globe (Leous, 2005). This includes 86 percent of all sea turtle species, 44 percent of all seabird species, and 43 percent of all marine mammal species (Leous, 2005). Many marine birds and animals mistakenly eat pelagic, or free-floati
