The Perils of Plastic Pollution

By Jamie Murphy.

Biologist Stewart Fefer and three colleagues from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had eagerly anticipated their assignment: a trip to Laysan, a 960-acre island about 1,000 miles northwest of Honolulu. They were to study some of the 14 million seabirds that nest there, and they looked forward to their stay on what they assumed would be an island paradise with pristine beaches. What they discovered came as a shock. The sands of Laysan were strewed with an unbelievable variety of plastic trash. While doing his bird-watching chores, Fefer cataloged thousands of pellets as well as toy soldiers, disposable lighters and one toy Godzilla--all made of plastic. "This is one of the most remote islands in the world," he says. "I expected it to be just idyllic."

The debris that despoiled Laysan's beaches had been washed ashore by the waters of the Pacific, which like other oceans is becoming increasingly fouled by plastic flotsam. But while the floating and beached plastic is unquestionably an eyesore, the problem goes far beyond aesthetics. At the Sixth International Ocean Disposal Symposium in Pacific Grove, Calif., last month, scientists reported that plastic trash is causing injury and death to countless marine animals that feast on it or become ensnared in it. Says Ecologist David Laist, of the Marine Mammal Commission: "Plastics may be as ! great a source of mortality among marine mammals as oil spills, heavy metals or other toxic materials."

Prime contributors to the growing tide of plastic pollution are the world's merchant ships, which, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences, dump at least 6.6 million tons of trash overboard every year. Some 639,000 plastic containers and bags are tossed into the oceans every day. Commercial fishermen are also major offenders. Estimates of the plastic fishing gear lost or discarded at sea every year range as high as 150,000 tons. Boaters and beachgoers add to the marine litter with six-pack yokes, picnic utensils, sandwich bags and Styrofoam cups. Cities and industries discharging waste directly into the water or dumping it at sea are also to blame. On some East Coast beaches near sewage outlets, so many plastic tampon inserters have washed ashore that residents refer to them as "beach whistles."

Perhaps the most ubiquitous form of plastic trash is the tiny polyethylene pellets used in the manufacture of plastic items. In one survey, researchers calculated that, on average, a square mile of the Sargasso Sea, southeast of Florida, contained between 8,000 and 10,000 bobbing pellets. Says Al Pruter, a fishery biologist and partner in a Seattle-based natural- resources consulting firm: "Almost without exception, surveys show plastic to account for over one-half the man-made products on the ocean surface."

The plastic is taking a heavy toll on marine life, particularly on seals, sea lions, turtles and seabirds. By one estimate, as many as 50,000 northern fur seals in the Pribilof Islands die each year after becoming enshrouded in netting. "Young seals get their heads or flippers caught in it," says Laist. "Then they either become exhausted from toting it or their ability to catch food is restricted."

Smaller plastic items are frequently mistaken for prey by turtles and birds, often with fatal results. Leatherback turtles, which feast on jellyfish, are particularly attracted to plastic bags. Says University of Florida Zoologist Archie Carr, an authority on sea turtles: "Any kind of film or semitranslucent material appears to look like jellyfish to them." Trouble is, the bags--or other plastic items like golf tees--can form a lethal plug in the turtle's digestive tract.

At least 42 species of seabirds are known to snack on plastic. Of 50 albatrosses found ill or dead on the Midway Islands, 45 had eaten some form of the substance. In several, the plastic had either obstructed the digestive tract or caused ulcers. Says James Coe, program manager for the Marine Entanglement Research Program at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle: "We have found everything from toy soldiers to pens, fishing bobbers and poker chips in the birds' stomachs." A study of wedge-tailed shearwaters, which breed on central Pacific islands, showed that 60% of the adults surveyed had ingested plastic. Even sea gulls, which are able to disgorge disagreeable food, are not immune to the plastic threat. They have been strangled by six-pack yokes.

Efforts to reduce the amount of plastic jettisoned into the oceans have been largely unsuccessful. Although the U.S. and 59 other nations agreed in 1972 to outlaw the dumping of durable plastics, among other substances, into the oceans, the treaty failed to address the discharge of ordinary garbage, which contains large quantities of plastic items. Ten states are trying to do their part; they have passed legislation requiring that six-pack yokes be made of treated plastic that degrades rapidly in sunlight. Nonetheless, concludes Zoologist Carr: "This junk is growing in abundance year by year. It is just getting outrageous."

With reporting by Andrea Dorfman/New York and Jon D. Hull/Los Angeles