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There are a number of nonprofit organizations working to take away floating plastic from the Nice Pacific Patch. The most important, the Ocean Cleanup Basis within the Netherlands, developed a internet particularly to gather and focus marine particles as it’s pulled throughout the ocean’s floor by winds and currents. As soon as the web is full, a ship takes its contents to land for correct disposal.
Dr. Helm and different scientists warn that such nets threaten sea life, together with neuston. Though changes to the web’s design have been made to scale back bycatch, Dr. Helm believes any large-scale elimination of plastic from the patch may pose a menace to its neuston inhabitants.
“Relating to determining what to do concerning the plastic that’s already within the ocean, I feel we must be actually cautious,” she mentioned. The outcomes of her examine “actually emphasize the necessity to examine the open ocean earlier than we attempt to manipulate it, modify it, clear it up or extract minerals from it.”
Laurent Lebreton, an oceanographer with the Ocean Cleanup Basis, disagreed with Dr. Helm.
“It’s too early to succeed in any conclusions on how we should always react to that examine,” he mentioned. “You must take note of the consequences of plastic air pollution on different species. We’re gathering a number of tons of plastic each week with our system — plastic that has effects on the atmosphere.”
Plastic within the ocean poses a menace to marine life, killing greater than one million seabirds yearly, in addition to greater than 100,000 marine mammals, in keeping with UNESCO. Every part from fish to whales can turn into entangled, and animals usually mistake it for meals and find yourself ravenous to demise with stomachs stuffed with plastic.
Ocean plastics that don’t find yourself asphyxiating an albatross or entangling an elephant seal ultimately break down into microplastics, which penetrate each department of the meals internet and are practically inconceivable to take away from the atmosphere.
One factor everybody agrees on is that we have to cease the move of plastic into the ocean.
“We have to flip off the faucet,” Mr. Lecomte mentioned.
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