Researchers Race to find the Source of Microplastics Choking the World’s Oceans

Groundbreaking research into one of the world’s most complex pollution problems, microplastics, is underway at B.C. labs.  Scientists are growing increasingly concerned about microplastics in water and in the food chain, but they face some daunting challenges in the race to uncover the sources of the problem.

“We’re encountering a pollutant unlike any pollutant we’ve ever seen before,” says Dr. Peter Ross, director of ocean pollution research at the Vancouver Aquarium. “This is not a chemical pollutant, it’s a structural pollutant.”

Recent samples his team have taken off the B.C. coast contained up to 25,000 plastic particles and fibres in just one cubic metre of water.

Yes, some of it comes from plastic bags, foam packaging, cigarette butts and other remnants of the millions of tonnes of plastic debris slowly breaking down in the world’s oceans.

But there are some surprising sources, too, like laundry.

“A single sweater could release as much as 10,000 particles of microplastic fibres,” said Ross.

“That’s getting into the wastewater stream, and you have a million or two million people doing such laundry — it adds up.”

This water sample taken by researchers in B.C.’s Strait of Georgia contained an average of 3,200 plastic particles per cubic metre of ocean. Other samples off Vancouver contained up to 25,000 particles. (Vancouver Aquarium)

Sewage treatment plants may hold answers

But no one knows yet how washing your favourite fleece jacket fits into the bigger picture.

To find out, Ross is working with sewage treatment plants to measure the number and types of fibres in the water coming in, and later sampling the treated water as it flows out into the Fraser River to compare.

What they find could lead to changes in filtering techniques at treatment plants.

Water sampling is also being done out in the open ocean, revealing a mix of fibres and other microplastics, defined as anything smaller than five millimetres in size.

It’s a global issue, so everyone has an interest in reducing the amount of plastic being added to the world’s waterways. One estimate puts it at the equivalent of a garbage truckload every minute. At this rate, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

To home in on the problem, technicians at the Vancouver Aquarium lab recently began using a $325,000 infrared spectrometer like the kind usually found in crime labs.

It can identify the type of plastic from tiny samples.

‘It’s not going to give us the exact fingerprint,” says Ross. “It won’t say ‘Walmart fleece made in China,’ but it will confirm it is plastic, give us the category, tell us about additives and sometimes actually a manufacturer.”

. . .

Featured image:

This microscopic image shows a tiny zooplankton tangled in a microplastic fibre. Plankton are part of the diet for some bigger fish and give the microplastics a gateway into the food supply. (Vancouver Aquarium)

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B.C. researchers race to find the source of microplastics choking the world’s oceans

By Greg Rasmussen, CBC NEWS, March 11, 2017

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-microplastics-research-1.4017502

Sperm Whales Found Full of Car Parts and Plastic

A fishing net, part of a car engine, and plastic buckets were found in the stomachs of 13 sperm whales which washed up on a German beach

Fishing gear and an engine cover are just some of the startling contents found inside the stomachs of sperm whales that recently beached themselves on Germany’s North Sea coast.

The 13 sperm whales washed up near the German state of Schleswig-Holstein earlier this year, the latest in a series of whale strandings around the North Sea. So far, more than 30 sperm whales have been found beached since the start of the year in the U.K., the Netherlands, France, Denmark, and Germany.

After a necropsy of the whales in Germany, researchers found that four of the giant marine animals had large amounts of plastic waste in their stomachs. The garbage included a nearly 43-foot-long (13-meter-long) shrimp fishing net, a plastic car engine cover, and the remains of a plastic bucket, according to a press release from Wadden Sea National Park in Schleswig-Holstein.

However, “the marine litter did not directly cause the stranding,” says Ursula Siebert, head of the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, whose team examined the sperm whales.

Instead, the researchers suspect that the whales died because the animals accidentally ventured into shallow seas.

. . . According to the WDC, whales and dolphins may strand for many reasons, such as excessive noise pollution from ships and drilling surveys or even subtle shifts in Earth’s magnetic field. In addition, pilot whales that beached off the coast of Scotland three years ago showed high levels of toxins from ocean pollution, which scientists linked to stress on their brains that may have caused disorientation.

  

Schleswig-Holstein environment minister Robert Habeck holds debris found inside beached sperm whales in a picture posted to Instagram.  (Photo Robert Habeck,Instagram)

Sperm whale swims near the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. Photography by Brian Skerry, National Geographic Creative

. . . Siebert adds that if the whales had survived, the garbage in their guts might have caused digestive problems down the line. At the time of death, the animals were in decent shape and, in addition to the debris, the scientists found thousands of squid beaks in the whales’ stomachs.

But when whales and dolphins ingest lots of marine litter, either accidentally or because they mistake the trash for prey, it can cause physical damage to their digestive systems. The trash may eventually give the animals the sensation of being full and reduce their instinct to feed, leading to malnutrition.

While the garbage may not have been lethal for these whales, “the plastic debris in their stomachs is a horrible indictment of humans,” adds Hal Whitehead, a whale researcher at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Featured image: Sperm whales found with ingested car parts and other plastic. Photo credit: Facebook

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Sperm Whales Found Full of Car Parts and Plastic

BRITA® and PRESERVE® Announce Filter Recycling Program

11/18/2008: The Take Back The Filter campaign is thrilled to announce that Brita and Preserve have teamed up to create a take-back recycling program for Brita pitcher filter cartridges! Read the full press release here.

In a nutshell, beginning in January, folks will be able to drop off filters at Whole Foods Markets or mail them in. Preserve, a U.S. company manufacturing household products from recycled plastic, will recycle 100% of the plastic casing. And the filter material will be regenerated or converted to energy.

Please see our 11/18/08 news item for more details.

Brita tells us that since the faucet mount filters are made from a different type of plastic from the pitcher filters, they are not part of the program at this time. However, Brita and Preserve are continuing to explore options to recycle faucet mount filters and hopes to have a solution in the near future.

READ FULL ARTICLE @ http://www.takebackthefilter.org/