r/pics • u/lnfinity • Aug 12 '21
The majority of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is discarded fishing gear.
693
u/some_canadian_dude Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
Sea Shepherds have great ideals and do good things but they're so fucking dumb and they're a bunch of fucking assholes.
I lived in Hobart, where they would make port and they'd cause so much trouble in town, bullying ppl, getting in fights etc. They think they're badass but they're idiots.
Sacrificing their million dollar stealth speedboat the My Ady Gil by parking it in the way of a whaling ship and hoping to take them to court for damages, they forgot the first rule of maritime law; the least maneuverable ship has the right of way. They lost that case.
They tried stopping a legal seal cull in Canada and got their boat, the MV Farley Mowat impounded. They never claimed it back and now face a law suit for abandoning a derelict vessel that's leaking oil everywhere.
They took a video trying to show a Japanese whaling ship ramming them, yet it's clear that the SS ship, The Steve Irwin, is the ones changing course to purposely collide with the whaling ship.
They board other ships in international waters (piracy) and whine and cry when they get detained in a brig and brought back to face a court.
They have wasted soooo much money donated to them by benefactors.
Seriously, it's as though they're all kids playing with boats in a bathtub. Idiots.
EDIT:typo EDIT 2: another typo lol
351
u/Positronix Aug 12 '21
Ah, so the PETA of the sea then
96
u/some_canadian_dude Aug 12 '21
Pretty much. Even this pic is doctored to fit their agenda. 80% of plastics in the ocean are from land, yet they stood on a pile of fishing net and made a claim that fits their goals.
135
u/swinging_ship Aug 12 '21
46% of plastics in the pacific garbage patch are from fishing gear. That is the majority and that is a problem.
102
u/lnfinity Aug 12 '21
46% of the plastic is from fishing nets. Other types of fishing gear account for a substantial portion of the remainder:
A comprehensive new study by Slat’s team of scientists, published in Scientific Reports Thursday, concluded that the 79,000 tons was four to 16 times larger than has been previously estimated for the patch. The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets.
40
u/darren01610 Aug 12 '21
The pacific rubbish patch represents a very small amount of the plastic in the worlds oceans. Most of the plastic is in the form of microplastics and non-buoyant plastics. Greenpeace did a study in 2019 that placed discarded fishing gear (not just nets) at 10% of the errant plastic in the ocean. I will grant you that the pacific rubbish patch is largely discarded fishing gear but it is much less of a problem compared to other forms of plastic.
I think it gets a lot of attention because it is the area of most obvious danger to large marine life (despite the fact that microplastics in the food chain are just as dangerous to whales/dolphins etc.) and it also provides people with a scapegoat (i.e. fishermen & women) that makes them feel better about themselves so they can pretend that they aren't just as big of a contributor the global problem.
→ More replies18
u/potatotay Aug 12 '21
I watched that documentary on Netflix, I think it was (forgot the name) and I thought the same thing. All that "info" is only good for people to say "welp, that makes me blameless!". And I even had a moment after where I was like "fuck fisherman" but then it hit me. We still need to do our part.
4
-1
u/KyleSonOfKaren Aug 13 '21
That doco was interesting, but it was mostly just a cover for forcing vegetarianism.
→ More replies14
u/ZLBuddha Aug 12 '21
Technically that's a plurality
5
u/uencos Aug 12 '21
Nets are a plurality, add the rest of the ‘fishing gear’ category and you get a clear majority
→ More replies→ More replies-8
u/_Apatosaurus_ Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
46%
That is the majority
Please explain
Edit: Majority almost always refers to an absolute majority of >50%. If OP means a plurality or relative majority, they should specify that. Not doing so is intentionally misleading.
16
u/Smittywerbenjagerman Aug 12 '21
Things can be majority with less than 50% of the total if there are more than 2 categories.
15
u/Bjd1207 Aug 12 '21
No that's called a plurality not a majority
7
u/Its_Nitsua Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
If you have 6 apples 3 bananas and 4 oranges, you have a majority of apples.
Majority literally means ‘the greater number’.
Edit: yes there are multiple definitions, but with the magic of context we can clearly see OP was using the one I’m referencing.
11
u/RogueFighter Aug 12 '21
No, that's a plurality. Majority does specifically mean >50%
The stat above only counts fishing nets, if you included non-net fishing gear it does push the number over 50%.
→ More replies6
u/FaceRockerMD Aug 12 '21
This is a semantics argument but I love how confidently incorrect you are.
1
u/Its_Nitsua Aug 12 '21
All these people trying to correct you are literally speaking out of their ass.
Majority
noun
noun: majority; plural noun: majorities
- the greater number.
"in the majority of cases all will go smoothly"
→ More replies-8
u/_Apatosaurus_ Aug 12 '21
Majority means more than half. If there are more than two categories, and it's the largest, I believe the correct terms would be plurality or relative majority.
0
7
u/I--Pathfinder--I Aug 12 '21
well 46% isn’t the majority but i think he could mean that of all groups of trash in the ocean it is the most.
2
u/Alis451 Aug 12 '21
he used the % for just the nets, and misquoted the NatGeo article, but more than half of all garbage is indeed fishing gear which includes the nets which are 46% of the total by themselves
The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets.
2
u/GodlessHippie Aug 12 '21
Plurality was the word they were looking for
6
u/swinging_ship Aug 12 '21
Plurality and simple majority are the same thing. I never specified an absolute majority but a majority nonetheless.
→ More replies-1
u/_Apatosaurus_ Aug 12 '21
We all know that majority almost always means absolute majority. If that's not what OP meant, they should specify that they meant relative majority or plurality. Or, they could have included a percentage.
It's possible to technically be correct but also be intentionally misleading.
→ More replies3
u/swinging_ship Aug 12 '21
No other material makes up more than 46% making 46% the majority
1
→ More replies0
5
u/brookilini Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
Incorrect. This is a picture of my friend on the ship. How do you think this picture is doctored?
→ More replies2
4
u/jrtie Aug 12 '21
The founder of Sea Shepherd was also a founding member of Greenpeace but was kicked off the board because he didn't agree with their definition of "non-violence" if that tells you anything. Greenpeace has since called him a violent extremist and an eco-terrorist.
3
u/brookilini Aug 12 '21
Bob Hunters daughter, Emily volunteered with Sea Shepherd and is a friend of Pauls. If the media say one thing you can't always believe it.
→ More replies-10
u/[deleted] Aug 12 '21
[deleted]
44
u/dr-dog69 Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
They spread misinformation, use fear-mongering tactics, have assaulted people etc.
edit: they euthanize a majority of animals that come in their shelters. like 99%
→ More replies13
u/_Apatosaurus_ Aug 12 '21
they euthanize a majority of animals that come in their shelters. like 99%
That part is not the problem. They euthanize animals because there is no one who can or will pay for their care. No kill shelters can exist because the vast majority of old, sick, and expensive animals go to shelters like PETA.
Everything else they do that you outlined is fucked up and I dislike PETA, but euthanizing animals is a necessary evil and we are lucky someone has the compassion to do it.
9
u/yahma Aug 12 '21
I know this may sound bad, but someday I hope society will advance enough where we have the same compassion for humans and allow for euthanasia of the terminally ill.
→ More replies13
u/nethack47 Aug 12 '21
There is also some instances where they took pets and euthanized them onto the day. I read about one instance where they had been invited to capture semi feral cats. They had spoken with a family but came back later and tried to lure their dog onto public properly which failed so they went onto their porch to grab it. It was euthanized the same day. I think they also tried to see if the family could be illegals when they sued.
They reportedly ignore collars and tags on animals and euthanize as fast as they can despite legal waiting periods.
Aside from that they also sued David Slater for the monkey selfie....
→ More replies6
u/_Apatosaurus_ Aug 12 '21
That was a single example that has been paraded around, and the exact details continually change to make them look worse.
2
u/nethack47 Aug 12 '21
Both examples are ones I have read about the legal proceedings but since I don't live in the US it is all just things people described. Both did re-homing so probably true but it comes down to them not believing in humans having pets.
I am sure it makes sense from their point of view.
→ More replies-2
u/highschoolnickname Aug 12 '21
I was waiting for the usual out of context quote of the president and euthanizing animals to prevent torture.
4
u/treetyoselfcarol Aug 12 '21
I was refinishing floors at a bed and breakfast a few addresses down from PETA HQ. We had a contractor's dumpster in the parking lot and one day there was a bunch of people standing around the dumpster. My first thought was a dead body and I was kind of right. They found a bunch of dead dogs in garbage bags. That shit still haunts me to this day.
3
u/IDGAFAQ Aug 12 '21
They kill animals more than the people they were protesting is what I read on Reddit a while back. Not sure how correct that is.
1
u/hms11 Aug 12 '21
I mean, no one kills more pets than PETA.
By sheer number of dogs and cats killed they are pretty awful.
37
u/usrevenge Aug 12 '21
The whale wars episode of south park lives up.
The whole whale wars thing was stupid. They made it out that they were basically pirates for good then never did anything.
→ More replies13
u/FlokiTrainer Aug 12 '21
"Yeah, we're badasses."
As soon as that commenter said they acted like they were badasses I had South Park flashbacks.
16
u/brookilini Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 13 '21
The Sea Shepherd deck crew pulled those fishing nets up by hand on Operation Milagro. And yes, the women in the picture DID pull them up to as she was the bosun.The nets are set by poachers inside the Zero Tolerance Area in the upper gulf of the sea of cortez. Each year 100's of illegal poachers funded by the Chinese and Mexican cartels fish for the local seabass the 'totababa'. The swim bladders are smuggled out of the country and sold in China for 100K per kg.The real issue is the vaquita porpoise. It is the smallest porpoise in the world, and endemic to the area. They get caught in the nets and die :/Sea Shepherd crew have operating campaigns for the last seven years, pulling up these nets to ensure the vaquita survive.Sea Shepherd is there at the invitation of the Mexican government and works with them to protect the vaquita.
Edit: Can't internet good, and in fact, did not hijack top comment.
3
u/DnCBurnBurnBurn Aug 13 '21
Your comment seems to be very informative, and I think puts the provided image into context. I think the title of the original post is incredibly misleading.
10
u/Nessius Aug 12 '21
Sorry, just clarifying: did you mean the least maneuverable ship has right of way?
8
u/some_canadian_dude Aug 12 '21
Sorry yes lol. My bad. They had a stealth speed boat, and parked it in the way of a travelling whaling ship.
Edited that, thanks.
9
u/TongsOfDestiny Aug 12 '21
Not to nitpick, but I'm gonna nitpick. There are some rules regarding manoruverability of vessels, however between two (unencumbered) power driven vessels outside of a shipping lane no such rule exists. It is however illegal to purposely cause a collision in the same way that a car pulling out in front of a transport truck would be in the wrong not because it's more maneuverable but because it put itself into the collision
→ More replies3
u/tatsumakisempukyaku Aug 12 '21
Yeah, I know what you mean, I used to live in Fremantle and while I might not be as hippie/alternative as most there I am still big on the importance of environmental health, but these guys, they always seemed a little off to me.
3
u/Streets-Disciple Aug 13 '21
Yeah my mom met one of them on a trip to Bali, said the dude was a total tool, and was doing nothing to actually fix the issues they claim to be fighting.
1
11
u/JohnnyOnslaught Aug 12 '21
but they're so fucking dumb
I wanna qualify this by saying that I've got nothing but respect and admiration for people who go out of their way to try and protect the planet. That being said...
When I was doing my STCWs I was shown a bunch of videos of how not to deploy a rescue boat and there was one from the Sea Shepherd where they completely fuck up a launch. This sort of thing would be funny if it weren't so unbelievably dangerous.
3
u/some_canadian_dude Aug 12 '21
Oh man, I've never seen this video. This is just par for the course for these losers.
3
10
u/WOPR1983 Aug 12 '21
It's not the message itself, it's the DELIVERY of the message that will sink you every. single. time. Take the high road. These guys are often the way not to influence people and make change.
1
2
2
u/Gringoboi17 Aug 13 '21
I used to hate watch Whale Wars (the sea Shepard’s TV show on animal planet). From what I saw and hear from others they deserve all the hate they get. Two instances I remember are when they attacked a Japanese whaling ship by throwing glass bottles of chemical solutions meant to putrefy the whale meat onto the ship. They got a call from the ship asking them to stop because one fisherman got hit in the head and had suffered a really bad concussion. They didn’t because the fishermen were “obviously lying”. Second their leader always goes below deck on their little raids to “strategize”. He does this every single time and one time he wore a bullet proof vest because he was concerned the fishermen would start shooting at them. So after the battle he comes back up and in the middle of a meeting feels around his vest and finds a bullet in it. He uses this to try to say the fishermen were shooting at them. There are a few problems with this. The whole encounter was filmed and not a single gunshot was heard. He was below deck the whole time. The only person wearing a bullet proof vest just happens to be the only one that got shot at. No other bullets were ever found.
They meet every definition of eco terrorist and don’t deserve people’s sympathy. Much less their donations.
2
u/some_canadian_dude Aug 13 '21
I agree with you 1000%. I once took a tour of the Steve Irwin, during which a crew member described how they throw ziplock bags of rancid butter to spoil the meat. Then he showed us a video of an encounter and we could all clearly see their crew throwing beer bottles and big nuts and bolts. Everything they do seems to be dangerous.
5
u/Smellzlikefish Aug 13 '21
As an example, this photo shows a girl standing on what seems to be a large amount of net. It isn't. To get a feel for the scope and learn about some folks that are actually trying to make a dent and not just fill their instagram feed, check out NOAA's Marine Debris Project or the Papahanaumokuakea Marine Debris Project. This photo is basically just someone wanting social media likes for picking up a soda bottle.
→ More replies2
u/debridezilla Aug 13 '21
People who pick up trash deserve to be praised. Are you honestly saying that that woman, boat, and org don't deserve praise because they didn't pick up as many nets as NOAA?
→ More replies4
u/ninedollars Aug 12 '21
I saw the japanese whaling crash on youtube. It was so cringey. They purposely hit them and then cried. It's one thing if someone has footage of them ramming the ship. But its another thing to have your own camera record everything. Fuck the whaling ships, but they endangered their own crew and the other crew.
2
u/some_canadian_dude Aug 12 '21
When I was living in Hobart, they were giving tours of the Steve Irwin and giving each other pats on the back. Just a big circle jerk. They were showing the footage of the ramming to ppl on the tours and everyone was like "dude! Wtf!?" Cringey is right!
2
4
u/clydeevans393 Aug 12 '21
I worked on a couple of seasons or Whale Wars. These people are crazy!!! To them you have to be willing to die for the whales. Watson thinks his crew is expendable while he wears a bullet proof vest. To fake getting shot. This is speculation from working on season 1. I have no official proof but we all thought it was super sus when doing the show.
→ More replies3
u/some_canadian_dude Aug 12 '21
Oh yah I know Paul Watson is insane! He's the one that boarded a whaling ship without permission in international waters. That's literally piracy!
He's got a laundry list of warrants in a handful of countries.
→ More replies3
u/jastan10 Aug 12 '21
Also they staged their captain getting shot and blamed it on a fishing vessel... I forgot the details but it should go near the top of the list.
→ More replies4
2
u/ouchpuck Aug 12 '21
Loved watching the show, it was every week of what dumb fucking thing will they do now to hinder efforts
→ More replies→ More replies2
6
27
u/blacktothebird Aug 12 '21
is this the same boat that used to have that whaling reality show. I wonder what happen to those guys, didn't outlast the crab show.
35
u/portablebiscuit Aug 12 '21
I can’t believe how long the crab show has been on. It’s basically the same episode over and over.
27
u/added_chaos Aug 12 '21
Oh look, more crazy weather and angry fishermen
14
u/portablebiscuit Aug 12 '21
Will they catch enough crabs? Will anyone be lost to the fury of an angry sea? What about personal demons? Surely they have those?
5
u/PhanSiPance Aug 12 '21
It’s a background noise show. Put on the crab show, clean, watch an interesting bit, organize, watch a fight on a boat, text some people repeat.
2
10
u/Spooki Aug 12 '21
Discovery made a 6th season, but they chose not to air it due to increasing legal trouble surrounding Sea Shepherd, and by extension, Discovery
1
u/Dust601 Aug 12 '21
I know this probably makes me a awful person, but I couldn’t stand the Sea Shepard people based on the show alone. When I researched, and found out about all the other sketchy things they did (top comments mentions some). I actively started rooting against them.
1
u/1337duck Aug 12 '21
Deadliest Catch?
I'm just waiting for the day they all catch nothing cause we fucked the oceans.
66
u/Steelio22 Aug 12 '21
If you are interested in this topic, take a look at the documentary Seaspiracy
43
u/Justanothernutjob Aug 12 '21
How in God's name did that make it through writers and editors and producers and no one changed it to "ConspiraSEA"
6
u/Matty5000 Aug 12 '21
Aren't there already multiple movies called Conspiracy? Doesn't feel like a visual change to a word's spelling is better than making a new one, just muddies the water
11
20
u/Slightly_underated Aug 12 '21
This scared me. I mean I was always aware of how we are killing the planet but this explains it on another level. Like teatering on a knife edge scary.
→ More replies31
u/Steelio22 Aug 12 '21
The craziest part to me is how there is the whole organization that labels certain sea food as "sustainable," to make people feel like their purchases are helping to protect ocean life. But in reality the organization is doing absolutely nothing to enforce good fishing practices.
1
u/Slightly_underated Aug 12 '21
Yep just another way to try and pull the wood over our eyes. The way this world is run is all back to front.
21
u/titanicx Aug 12 '21
Didn't many researchers, including some used in the show cone out and say they were wrong
17
u/_Apatosaurus_ Aug 12 '21
Redditors often don't open articles, so I'm going to post a snippet;
However, overall Seaspiracy does more harm than good. It takes the very serious issue of the devastating impact of industrial fisheries on life in the ocean and then undermines it with an avalanche of falsehoods. It also employs questionable interviewing techniques, uses anti-Asian tropes, and blames the ocean conservation community, i.e., the very NGOs trying to fix things, rather than the industrial companies actually causing the problem.
Most importantly, it twists the narrative about ocean destruction to support the idea that we — the Netflix subscribers of the world — can save ocean biodiversity by turning vegan. In doing so, Seaspiracy undermines its tremendous potential value: to persuade people to work together, and push for change in policy and rules that will rein in an industry which often breaks the law with impunity
→ More replies6
→ More replies7
u/teenagemutaintninja Aug 12 '21
Ok, but the people in the article you’re referencing are representing organizations the filmmaker is essentially calling fraudulent. I think who is questioning his credibility is pretty relevant, and from the article you cited, it’s the same organizations that he’s accusing of being highly misleading. Of course they are going to come out and disagree with him.
3
u/titanicx Aug 12 '21
Do some research on your own. Many of the researchers they mention have come out and said they Either cut footage to make things more dramatic, changed facts to fit the narrative, or just plain or lied about what they said. The documentary is bunk.
→ More replies6
u/ithappenedone234 Aug 12 '21
Note again that negligent corporations do far more polluting than the average person, but they use their marketing to turn it back on just the people, when it should be the responsibility of everyone.
6
u/Zoddom Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
Not just if youre interested, its basically a must watch.
→ More replies7
u/Bensemus Aug 12 '21
This doc isn't great. Google the controversy surrounding it and many of the people interviewed don't like how the doc presented them. I'm talking about the NGOs that have been fighting for the ocean for decades. Seasperacy is really a veiled ploy to try and argue that sustainable fishing is impossible and not consuming fish is the only viable method of protecting the ocean.
11
3
u/Atari_buzzk1LL Aug 12 '21
But sustainable fishing by definition IS IMPOSSIBLE and not consuming fish IS the only way to protect the ocean. How hard is it to understand that we literally have full fuckin research papers documenting what we've done to the ocean with fishing and our consumption. The more the population grows, the more people need to be fed, if we stopped eating animals (aka stopped breeding them forcefully into existence to murder them) and just ate plant based diets using the land currently used to make mass amounts of animal feed, we would do so much good for the survival of this planet. I'm sick and tired of people who ARE perfectly capable of surviving and thriving on a plant based diet making every fucking excuse in the world as to why "meat taste gud tho" or "what about this vitamin?" DO SOME DAMN RESEARCH AND SEE THAT ITS POSSIBLE AND YOU WONT SHRIVEL UP AND DIE. Fuck. Your life isn't worth more than the other animals on it and if you think so, then I hope you enjoy when the planet lights on fire for your future family down the line for what we've done to it.
3
u/agreenmeany Aug 12 '21
Are you ignoring the large percentage of the world's population which relies on seafood for the majority of the protein in their diet?
If you are trying to pursuade Westerners to change up their diets and eat less (or no) meat and fish: I applaud you. But, if you are suggesting that the whole world just stops fishing and those that rely on it as a major part of their diet because they can't afford anything else: then I think you are mistaken.
2
u/Atari_buzzk1LL Aug 12 '21
I said that those WHO ARE capable, should change their diet, which means the only people who fit in the categories of not being able to are people with literally no supermarket access at all or those who are somehow medically not able to eat anything else (this far there is no medical reason to not be able to eat planet based". Beans, legumes, rice, vegetables, fruits, and nuts, etc are possibly some of the cheapest foods on the entire planet, so cost is not an argument. Meat costs more than plant foods and that's even after the meat industry has been handed massive subsidies. So basically, 95% of the world population has absolutely no excuse to not eat plant based. The other 5% wouldn't have to worry about their consumption if the 95% wasn't needlessly consuming how they do.
→ More replies→ More replies2
u/tuesday00 Aug 12 '21
The general message of Seaspiracy is very important however be a bit wary of the facts it provides as some if it is incorrect/old/disproven... Such a shame that they didn't fact check better cause the message is important!!
47
u/nuniabidness Aug 12 '21
Not the majority, but still sickening:
"80% of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to come from land-based sources, with the remaining 20% coming from boats and other marine sources" "Most of the debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups."
"These percentages vary by region, however. A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, due largely to ocean current dynamics and increased fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean."
More info about the patch:
"In reality, the majority of these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes. The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean."
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
35
u/MrMeeseeks013 Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
False, the fishing industry is trying to push it onto land base sources. Paper straws will not do shit!! It is more 50/50, ranges from 46-49% fishing gear.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/great-pacific-garbage-patch-plastics-environment
13
u/nuniabidness Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
What I wrote in the first comment was still correct, less than half are fishing nets and only in some places. This is the quote from above: "These percentages vary by region, however. A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, due largely to ocean current dynamics and increased fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean." The majority is still microplastics.
Although both of our sources come from the same place, mine was last updated July 2019, and your article is from 2018. Things may have changed since then is all I'm saying. Your's only mentions 46% I don't know where you're getting the 49 from, and again, only in certain spots.
10
u/MrMeeseeks013 Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
I was able to find these and you were right. I think the 80-20 number is not fair as it makes it seem like if we stop everything we are doing the oceans will be good again. But it is hard to determine because of the different types (sinking, floating, micro) and all that good shit. I mean 1 net can be huge and would take a lot of bottles to fill the same amount of space? What type of trash degrades to microplarics quicker? Welp, since I am now officially bummed and confused about the massive task clean up is. At the end of the day one side is gonna try to push it on the other. 50/50 technically makes us and them equally responsible
11
u/nuniabidness Aug 12 '21
This whole thing is making me depressed. Whether it's fishing nets or plastics or whatever, this is a mess. I'm grateful for people's efforts to clean this up. I wish there were more efforts globally to prevent this from even happening. I saw a documentary once about all of the old used computer monitors from Southeast Asia that they just literally dump into the ocean. Its saddening. There needs to be more regulations and policing of it, however with all of the corruption in the world those people would probably be paid off to turn a blind eye. We are freaking doomed as a world, where do I get off of it?
4
5
u/573IAN Aug 12 '21
I know it is mind blowing but science does,in fact, do just that—change. (e.g., Newtonian vs Quantum physics.)
6
4
u/lnfinity Aug 12 '21
46% of the plastic is from fishing nets. Other types of fishing gear account for a substantial portion of the remainder:
A comprehensive new study by Slat’s team of scientists, published in Scientific Reports Thursday, concluded that the 79,000 tons was four to 16 times larger than has been previously estimated for the patch. The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets.
4
u/CrasyWolfang Aug 12 '21
You'll need source(s) for that because 49% seem like a lot of fishing nets.
1
→ More replies2
u/lnfinity Aug 12 '21
You are confusing pieces of plastic with the overall amount of plastic. Your own source even states:
A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Here is another National Geographic article where they go into more detail clarifying the difference:
Microplastics make up 94 percent of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch. But that only amounts to eight percent of the total tonnage. As it turns out, of the 79,000 metric tons of plastic in the patch, most of it is abandoned fishing gear—not plastic bottles or packaging drawing headlines today.
A comprehensive new study by Slat’s team of scientists, published in Scientific Reports Thursday, concluded that the 79,000 tons was four to 16 times larger than has been previously estimated for the patch. The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets. Scientists estimate that 20 percent of the debris is from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
→ More replies
13
u/velocorapattack Aug 12 '21
As an individual, how do we tackle this?
Already don't eat fish.
10
u/Crac2 Aug 12 '21
Go vote! (for a political party that does care about these issues)
4
u/Huzah7 Aug 12 '21
OK, but what if we actually want to help and not offer "thoughts and prayers".
→ More replies2
1
u/Thecatswish Aug 12 '21
Unless we can stop China from destroying the seas with illegal fishing...
4
u/JunipherLi Aug 13 '21
People don't want to accept this for whatever reason, but China, the largest polluter in the world, has been overfishing and illegally fishing. What they are doing is not sustainable and it puts the world's ocean ecosystem at further risk. Unless the international community forces China to behave, they won't. History has shown us that they will not comply on their own.
This isn't something we can solve on an individual level. The problem needs a team effort between EVERY country to solve it. What you said is simply fact. This isn't about political ideologies or opinions, so idk why these people are downvoting.
Let's say we cleaned the entire ocean right now with the snap of someone's fingers... It wouldn't matter if there isn't any sea life to thrive in it. Wake up, people! We need policies that make sense and at least here in the US, the politicians are just virtue signalling, greedy, and incompetent.
5
u/i_hate_patrice Aug 12 '21
Only because we can't influence china doesn't mean that we can't make a difference
→ More replies
6
u/readmond Aug 12 '21
Based on the noise of the last couple years I expected plastic straws to be like 95% of it.
7
u/Mirrorflute88 Aug 12 '21
Plastic straws were the poster child because they're the easiest target. The idea was that if we could get the public to give up something as small as straws then they'd be more understanding of other zero waste actions such as bringing your own containers for bulk goods. Unfortunately that didn't work because a lot of people didn't understand that straws alone are not the end-all be-all of environmental issues.
2
u/readmond Aug 12 '21
Basically, it was a stupid idea probably generated by some psychology noob. It just made the whole plastic avoidance look silly.
Pricing plastic bottles properly (50 cents or so) and having recycling at every grocery store would have more impact.
5
u/missbay82 Aug 12 '21
I worked for a Seafood restaurant in oregon, called Catalyst Seafood. And, they had their own boats to harvest seafood. I was told by one of the fisherman, that they literally throw their own trash into the ocean. He had seen the boat/restaurant owners throw their trash & unwanted lines straight into the ocean, when they were fishing at sea.
3
2
2
2
2
u/aegis666 Aug 12 '21
Microplastics are the real danger. Like the shit you wash out of new clothes that ends up in the ocean.
→ More replies
2
2
12
u/seaspirit331 Aug 12 '21
You can raise awareness about the garbage patch without having to lie. It's largely made up of microplastics, not discarded fishing gear like what the woman in this picture is standing on
18
u/lnfinity Aug 12 '21
Microplastics make up 94 percent of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch. But that only amounts to eight percent of the total tonnage. As it turns out, of the 79,000 metric tons of plastic in the patch, most of it is abandoned fishing gear—not plastic bottles or packaging drawing headlines today.
A comprehensive new study by Slat’s team of scientists, published in Scientific Reports Thursday, concluded that the 79,000 tons was four to 16 times larger than has been previously estimated for the patch. The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets. Scientists estimate that 20 percent of the debris is from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
3
u/IMx03 Aug 12 '21
Micro plastics are everywhere. It wouldn’t be a garbage patch if it was made of micro plastics. It would just the the ocean.
1
u/seaspirit331 Aug 12 '21
The microplastics that make up the pacific garbage patch are kept there by a series of ocean currents called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and are drawn into the center of the fringes of the gyre where they are concentrated into these garbage patches
2
u/agreenmeany Aug 12 '21
Why are you being downvoted? You are making a factually accurate statement with nothing controversial in it!?
2
2
u/IMx03 Aug 12 '21
Most of the garbage in the ocean is from fishing nets.
1
u/seaspirit331 Aug 12 '21
Is there a source for this claim?
→ More replies6
u/Farmer771122 Aug 12 '21
if you copy/paste his comment into google, the first result is this:
https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/ghost-fishing-gear
which says
More than 12 million tons of plastic end up in our seas every year. Plastic pollution plagues every corner of the ocean and despite growing awareness, the problem is only getting worse. Fishing gear accounts for roughly 10% of that debris: between 500,000 to 1 million tons of fishing gear are discarded or lost in the ocean every year. Discarded nets, lines, and ropes now make up about 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
So there's the source. He wasn't entirely accurate, but his sentiment is close.
→ More replies1
u/Gsteel11 Aug 12 '21
Yeah, I was thinking.. "Thats not what I heard?"
But it's not like I've been there.
→ More replies1
u/InTimidationm8 Aug 12 '21
In SeaSpiracy they state that its mostly fishing gear
-1
u/seaspirit331 Aug 12 '21
Recent publications, such as Yang et al. (2021) and Mani et al. (2015), in addition to generalized research from GESAMP suggests otherwise
4
5
u/drdisney Aug 12 '21
I love the idea, but hate the ship. They basically think they are above the law and will harass and destroy other peoples property to prove their whole point. The fonder even was arrested a few years back for basically being s pirate on the open seas.
-1
u/Mirrorflute88 Aug 12 '21
The issue here is that you believe private property trumps the health of marine ecosystems. Their actions make a lot of sense if you actually care about the environment.
2
u/morbihann Aug 12 '21
The majority is microplastics. If it was fishing gear it wouldnt be that hard to take out.
2
u/i_hate_patrice Aug 12 '21
46% are fishing nets, the number would not be so high if you could take them out so easily https://www.onegreenplanet.org/news/ocean-plastic-made-discarded-fishing-nets/
3
u/cryptodesigngroup Aug 12 '21
Seaspiracy 2021. My life isn't the same after I watched this documentary.
→ More replies1
u/Bensemus Aug 12 '21
Read the controversy around that doc. It's not very accurate.
6
u/i_hate_patrice Aug 12 '21
It's still a must-see film, not because It's 100% accurate, but because it raises awareness.
→ More replies2
u/Carrot42 Aug 12 '21
People put too much trust in documentaries. Just because its a documentary doesnt mean its unbiased, or even factual information. The people making the documentary often have an agenda from the outset and only provide the evidence that support their case, ignoring the evidence that says otherwise.
2
2
1
u/MistyMorning_Dew Aug 12 '21
We need to start holding these international commercial fisheries accountable for single-handedly polluting our oceans with plastics.
It has to be a UN initiative, but the penalties must be considerable.
It won't happen.
1
u/ohbenito Aug 12 '21
oh yeah for eco-terrorists!
karens on a boat.
fuck sea shepherds with a sideways dingy.
0
u/GoodboyJohnnyBoy Aug 12 '21
Fishermen don’t give the teeniest tiniest fuck about the sea they’ll ransack it and dump shit in it till it’s completely fucked
5
2
u/2Fast2Real Aug 12 '21
You don’t eat fish right?
1
u/GoodboyJohnnyBoy Aug 12 '21
I haven’t really thought about it but I truthfully cannot remember the last time I ate fish for one thing it stinks the place out when cooked
5
u/2Fast2Real Aug 12 '21
Cool! Avoid it completely so people don’t ransack and dump so much shit in the ocean.
-1
3
1
u/fucreddit Aug 12 '21
I was a commercial fisherman for several years. They don't give a fuck and they throw everything overboard. BUT! I do have to say, net fishing is hard and a lot of times nets get caught and tangled on stuff and to keep from sinking they have to cut themselves loose. I knew a captain who was the sole survivor when he crewed on a vessel that got its net stuck and the captain didn't cut the net loose(they cost a shit load). Big wave came, instantly capsized the boat and killed everyone but the guy I knew.
→ More replies
-2
u/MR___SLAVE Aug 12 '21
The Sea Shepherds are still around? I thought they disappeared years ago when everyone realized how dumb and worthless their tactics were.
1
u/slid3r Aug 12 '21
Like the time the captain tried to say the whaling ship shot him and his badge blocked the bullet from hitting him in the heart and killing him.
So. Dumb.
0
u/folkdeath95 Aug 12 '21
I think they technically still exist, but they can’t really put their boats in the way of other ships anymore because they know they won’t be getting help from anyone legally
5
u/brookilini Aug 13 '21
With 10 ships operating world wide against illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing, I would say that’s more than technically.
-1
-9
u/bookybookbook Aug 12 '21
Sea Shepherd are heroes!
3
u/[deleted] Aug 12 '21
[deleted]
1
u/NewtonSteinLoL Aug 12 '21
How so?
→ More replies1
u/drewskibfd Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21
Paul Watson, the activist that Captains the ship, has literally sunk other vessels and if I remember correctly, he may have blown one up. He's literally an ecoterrorist. I don't like whaling but all he really did was force whalers to hunt more whales because they would ruin the whale carcass.
Edit: I can't find evidence of him trying to blow up a ship. I don't know where I heard that from
→ More replies2
u/bookybookbook Aug 16 '21
He didn’t force anybody to hunt more whales - that is a perverse understanding of the events. The whalers and the countries that support them should have stopped this arcane and unpopular practice. Ego killed whales, not Sea Shepherd.
→ More replies-1
1
u/camergen Aug 12 '21
So what’s to stop us- from any country- chipping away at this garbage patch by scooping up plastics and shipping them via barge to a facility on land where they can be sorted and recycled? Genuinely curious. I guess the finances would be a big hurdle but I’m wondering if it’s practical. With the micro plastics, maybe some sort of small filter or a suction method that can clump up all these bits and they can be melted/recycled/disposed of in another fashion.
5
u/Positronix Aug 12 '21
Because this is what the garbage patch actually looks like:
https://www.deepseanews.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/real_gpgp.jpeg
It's mostly microplastic and extremely small particles. The big flotillas of trash are just easier to show people and catch more attention.
3
u/scruffykid Aug 12 '21
I've always wondered this. Everyone talks about the garbage patch the size of Texas but never a photo of it so this makes sense
2
u/i_hate_patrice Aug 12 '21
Fishernet still make 46% of the waste in the ocean, but clearly It's a way easier problem to solve and microplastic is what gets us fucked sooner or later
3
u/Mirrorflute88 Aug 12 '21
The vast majority of plastics aren't recycled, so I don't think any country would take broken down ocean plastic if they're not taking readily available materials.
The better solution (in my opinion) is to reduce the use of plastics in the first place.
→ More replies2
2
u/lnfinity Aug 12 '21
Plastic needs to be accurately sorted and very clean in order to be recyclable. Cleaning and sorting plastic that has been scooped out of the ocean is incredibly time consuming and nowhere near making economic sense.
There are companies that are advertising some of their products as being made with recycled ocean plastic, but in reality they are capturing plastic from land sources that is headed toward the ocean, before it has gotten as messy from sea life growing on it. This is a positive thing and it is keeping some plastic out of the ocean, but it won't be able to make a dent in the massive problem of discarded fishing gear floating around.
→ More replies
0
u/Pudf Aug 12 '21
You mean the same gear we are using to destroy the balance of the system that supplies most of our oxygen?
25
u/alumofcu Aug 12 '21
I took my boat 3 miles off shore in San Diego. I picked up 1 Mylar balloon and 2 5 gallon buckets.