The 10 most common debris items found worldwide during the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup in September:
Cigarettes and filters: 3,216,991
Plastic bags: 1,377,141
Food wrappers and containers: 942,620
Caps and lids: 937,804
Plastic bottles: 714,892
Paper bags: 530,607
Straws and stirrers: 509,593
Cups, plates and cutlery: 441,053
Glass bottles: 434,990
Drink cans: 401,412
Source: Ocean Conservancy
I received a tip from a Sea Turtle List Serve that I am on regarding the mounting problem of trash entering our oceans. If you are new to the problem of trash in our oceans and the incredible amount of harm it does to the ecosystem and wildlife then have your eyes opened. Even those well versed in the issue should take a peak as this video:
What an idea! Today is “A Day Without A Plastic Bag” and although it is coming to a close I hope this great notion continues the plight of an ever increasing crisis, which by the way was the size of Texas back in 2007. This grassroots movement got me thinking about the vast garbage heap floating in the ocean and with a few simple clicks was reminded that this accumulation of marine debris consisted of 80% plastic and weighed over 3 million tons.
Apparently levying six and seven figure fines is an oily drop in the bucket to commercial shippers as yet another company has been caught illegally dumping their waste. It seems Casilda Shipping Ltd. got off easy with a $750K fine for violating international law by forging their “oil record book” and discharging waste oil at sea prior to coming to port in Oakland. By easy, I mean that this was a mere sub-million dollar fine imposed for polluting our oceans with untreated waste oil over a period from July 2007 to May 2008. They should consider themselves quite lucky that their ecological indifference and criminal activities did not result in fines topping $7 million, as was the case with an Egyptian shipping company earlier this year.
Since commercial shipping companies continue to bypass their anti-pollution systems, discharge waste, and risk fines, we need to ask ourselves if these fines are at all adequate. Obviously guilty operating companies are performing a classic cost-benefit analysis and realizing that it is cheaper to incur periodic punitive assessments than disposing of the sludge properly, which can be quite expensive and time consuming.
The Journal of the U.S. EPA Oil Program (2003)
Lucy: 
poor little turtle.
Angela: Interesting indeed! Do you have a link to the original publication?
anika001: aww this is so sad. i hope this will be stopped.
Dan: That’s so sad…I’ve always loved visiting Japan and their culture, but whaling for...
april14344: that’s pretty cool art…go for the conservation!
