Economic Feasibility of Cleaning the North Pacific Gyre, Term Paper Example

Introduction

Marine debris in our oceans has become a significant problem.  This can be a hazard to shipping, contribute to the degradation of the ocean quality, damage marine life and be a danger to human health and safety. In addition it has economic consequences in terms of clean up and prevention. The North Pacific Gyre is one example of a concentration of marine debris. This area is North West of the Hawaiian Islands where we are finding large deposits of plastics that range from fragments of plastic products, industrial plastic pellets, resins and other forms of discarded plastic wastes.  In the Pacific gyre the plastic has been estimated to be 60% of the total of 80% of plastic deposits in the world’s oceans. Toxic waste dumping is our oceans is an act of gross irresponsibility and threatens the future health of our oceans and marine life. (US Environmental Protection Agency)

Sources of Marine Debris

The main source of contamination to our oceans comes from illegal dumping at sea from shipping and the disposal of waste products.  In addition to the Pacific Gyre this has to be examined from a global problem perspective. Sources of land based pollution entering the sea have pointed at the western pacific region. California has been cited as one source that needs to be investigated further. For example in the storm drain of Los Angeles 25% of the rubbish was plastic bags.  Polystyrene accounts for 15% of the deposits being washed into the sea. Large amounts of plastic pellets are being found washed up on the beaches of Orange County.  In the Gyre North West of the Hawaiian Islands it is reported that some 52 metric tonnes of waste or discarded fishing gear turn up on an annual basis.

Marine Debris in the North Pacific Gyre

The High Density of rubbish in the North Pacific is located between 20^o N and 40^oN latitudes (Fig 1 refers).  His area of concentrated garbage consists of marine debris that is estimated to be 100 million tonnes of garbage of loosely packed plastics and other debris that extend to 100 feet below the surface.  Air surveillance also reports a high concentration of discarded fishing nets. The Beaufort Gyre, also called the Pacific Gyre is a clockwise current (technically called a drift) located between the North Pole, the Canadian archipelago and North Asian Continent.

The Economic consequences of the waste have also been increasing.  In 2008 APEC[1] estimated that the waste in the Pacific gyre costs the economy US$1.2 billion.  This relative to the impact against Fishing, Tourism, Transportation and cost of marine insurance payouts.  The incidence of marine debris is a concern for all nations and the responsibility of all shipping that navigates the North Pacific Ocean. (Asia-Pacific Economic Coooperation).

Ironically, the shape of the North Pacific Gyre looks like a mummified corpse lying on the ocean bed (see Fig 2). This is not far from the truth as the plastic components break down into small pieces and fouling weights cause them to sing to the ocean floor where they do not decompose but simply build up layers on the seabed.

The gap in our knowledge

There has been insufficient research carried out in terms of looking at the correlation of the marine debris to factors of causation like proximity to shipping lanes, the use of open trawls on fishing boats and the impact of movement caused by ocean currents.  Most of our current data has been accumulated from satellite imaging but is considered that we need closer surveillance by aircraft and more direct sampling over different areas. Other factors relate to wind currents that may be responsible for moving the marine debris around. Hence you are dealing with a number of different causative factors here and we need to understand the correlations and changing factors.

Economic cost of clean-up

It does not appear that anyone has given any serious consideration to the economic cost of cleaning this mess up.  It does seem that this can be addressed from a number of different perspectives:

Fishing Waste Materials

A huge contribution to the waste is discarded fishing nets and synthetic fibre ropes and attachments.  In particular nylon webbing in nets that do not decompose.  Most of these are seen to originate from Japanese fishing boats.  Prior to the 1950’s this was less of a problem because the nets were mainly made from hemp fibres and these would rot or decompose in the ocean. The discard of waste nets was not so much of a problem. There is a strong argument to support banning the use of nylon monofilament netting in favour of returning to biodegradable nets like Hemp, rope etc.

Fishing gear loss also includes much other plastic and synthetic material loss. The consequence of lost or discarded fishing gear has widespread economic and environmental consequences for this region of the Pacific Ocean. It has impacted some 136 species of marine animals and placed them on the endangered species list. 86% of the world’s sea turtles have become entangled in discarded nets together with large numbers of seabirds and seals.  This irresponsibility with Gill Net fisherman is of serious concern. Nobody has really put a cost against what it would cost in order to clean up this mess i.e. reclaim the materials from the Ocean and dispose of them properly.  It is unlikely that any country will admit a level of responsibility and contribute to the funding of the clean-up operation.  Equally, it is unlikely that many of these fisherman will have a sudden pang of conscience and become more environmentally responsible in their fishing practices. As such the only viable option is to stop the manufacture and sale of non-biodegradable fishing nets. (Donohue).

There have been many suggestions involving the use of environmental monitoring of the North Pacific Gyre area by aerial and satellite surveillance.  In addition the use of divers for identification of nets and discarded fishing gear.  The concept being to take legal action for those found to be dumping these materials in the Ocean.  This itself is a complex and costly operation and may not be the best approach towards solving the problem. (Donohue).

Correlation to climate change

It is during the last ten years that scientists have discovered that the chemical composition of the sea is changing.  The sea is increasing in acidity and this poses a threat to marine life, humans and others who have a dependency upon the sea.  This change is happening at an accelerate rate and scientists estimate that the oceans have absorbed 530 billion tonnes of CO2 that results in an overall 30% increase of acidity in our oceans.  Before the actual burning of fossil fuels the balance had been maintained on Earth for more than 20 million years. Scientists estimate that at current levels of global warming the sea wills double the current intake by 2100.  Further projections indicate that the seas around the Antarctic will reach corrosive levels by 2150. This will fundamentally change the chemical composition of our oceans. (Natural Resources Defense Council).

The point here is that the buildup of plastics and other toxic marine waste materials is adding to the toxicity and pollution of our oceans.  The correlation is that they are both man made and the gross irresponsibility of humans and government in terms of protecting our environment and ecology.  Both are to an extent reversible but both need the will and cooperation of the world governments in order to put in place the measures for reversal.  Both pollution and climate change are not supported by business and manufacturers who are the root cause of creating the problem. Leading Scientists believe that it is not too late to reverse these harmful effects to our oceans but only if decisive and immediate remedial action steps are taken. Ultimately the consequences are the dangerous and harmful condition to the health of our planet. Both climate change and ocean pollution may damage our fisheries beyond repair.

Conclusion

The damage to fisheries could be huge not only in the depletion of the stocks in the ocean but killing the very environment that will sustain the growth of future generations and stocks of fish in our oceans.  Fish and other seafood form an integral and important part of our healthy diet.  Equally, many nations throughout the world rely upon fish as the main source of protein.  The damage as such would be enormous. It is virtually impossible to determine the financial consequences in terms of both the destruction of our oceans and climate.  It would certainly have far greater impact than anything that we have experienced to date.  We are really sailing uncharted seas here and this is perhaps best approached by looking at the current attitudes of world governments in terms of addressing the issues.

Works Cited

Asia-Pacific Economic Coooperation. Understanding the economic benefits and costs of controlling marine debris in the APEC region. APEC Report. San Francisco CA: Asia-Pacific Economic Coooperation, 2009. http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/handle/123456789/23790.

Donohue, M.J. Brainard, R. Parke, M Foley, D. Mitigation of environmental impacts on derelict fishing gear through debris removal and environmental monitoring. Environmental Report. Honolulu, Hawaii: Institute for Marine & Atmospheric research, 2011. http://hawaiihumpbackwhale.noaa.gov/graphics/special_offerings/Issue_Paper_5.pdf.

Natural Resurces Defense Council. Ocean acidification: The other CO2 problem . 2012. http://www.nrdc.org/oceans/acidification. 26 9 2012.

US Environmental Protection Agency. Marine Debris in the North Pacific. Government Report. San Francisco CA: US Environmental Protection Agency, 2011. http://www.epa.gov/region9/marine-debris/pdf/MarineDebris-NPacFinalAprvd.pdf.

[1] Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC).