Long term threats of plastic and masks in our seas
Last summer, the BBC’s Natural History Unit saw how discarded plastic ends up thousands of miles away from where people lived when they visited French Frigate Shoals, an island northwest of Hawaii.
While filming, they found turtles nesting amongst plastic. They also found dead and dying albatross chicks, unknowingly killed by their parents who fed them plastic, carried in as they sought food in the sea. Some of the chicks because of sharp edges puncturing their bodies, others from starvation due to their stomach filling with plastic which they can’t digest.
The oceans are full of plastic. Some plastics are illegally tipped at sea or is litter from fishing. However, most come from the land: from poorly run landfill sites and industrial waste.
Effect on Sea life
Research shows that half of the sea turtles have ingested plastic. Some turtles starve after eating plastic because they believe they have eaten enough because their stomachs are full. On some beaches, plastic pollution is so significant that it affects turtles’ reproduction rates by changing the sand’s temperatures where incubation happens.
A recent study discovered that sea turtles that eat 14 pieces of plastic have an increased risk of death. The young ones are even more at risk since they are not as careful as their elders about what to eat. They also tend to drift with currents, just like plastic.
Plastics in the ocean kills up to a million seabirds annually. Just as turtles, seabirds die of starvation due to ingesting plastic, which fills their stomach. How we know? Because many seabirds are found with their stomachs full of plastic waste. Scientists estimate that more than half (60%) of all seabird species have eaten plastic pieces. The predictions are that this figure will rise to 99% by 2050.
While dolphins are highly intelligent and thus unlikely to eat plastic, they are susceptible to contamination through prey that have ingested synthetic compounds.
Plastic waste also encourages the growth of the pathogen in the seas. Scientists found that corals that come into contact with plastic have an 89% chance of contracting disease, compared with only 4% likelihood for corals that do not.
Coronavirus face mask pollution
It is estimated that people globally use and dispose of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion plastic gloves every month. Unavoidably, some of those masks end up in our oceans and join the rest of the waste that havocs the marine ecosystem. A recent study by the conservation organization OceansAsia estimated that around 1.5 billion face masks made it into our seas in 2020. They warn that the coronavirus face masks that end up in the sea will take 450 years to degrade.
The 1.5 billion estimate is based on 52 billion masks being manufactured in 2020, with a conservative loss ratio of 3 percent. Director of Research for OceansAsia said that “the 4,680 to 6,240 metric tonnes of face masks are just a small fraction of the estimated 8 to 12 million metric tonnes of plastic that enter our oceans each year.”
Use reusable face masks.
To limit the waste in oceans, try to use reusable face masks when you can. Besides me, The World Health Organization also recommends wearing reusable cloth face masks when going out in public. Cloth masks can be washed and worn numerous times, reducing the amount of waste you generate.
When using reusable masks is not possible, such as in a healthcare setting, more must be done to properly dispose of single-use masks. Masks need to be — at least — disposed of in a trash bag that is knotted up. Find more tips on safely disposing of face masks to ensure they don’t hurt wildlife or the environment.
