"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."
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.
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
Fishing nets are nearly half. As you can see from the additional context I provided, "the majority of the rest [is] composed of other fishing industry gear."
How deep do you wanna go, the nets could be catching the plastic so it doesn't end up in marine life's digestive tract, the fisherman are just trying to help keep the oceans alive by keeping small trash on the surface
44
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/