Whilst Jim and the TCSS crew were over in Japan at Greenroom, I was staying out on Stradbroke Island off the Queensland coast. Land of Crystal clear barrels, beach shacks,rusty 4WD's, old bearded men, tee pee's, tractors, roadside monotremes and the odd shark.
The waves died off at the end of the week and what better way to spend a shredless day than turning crusoe and combing the rocks for washed up treasures and some rad shells.
Whilst cruising around the beaches I was alarmed at the amount of small plastic pieces that had been washed up in the tide line. Later that day we came across a mature dead green sea turtle that had died from injesting these small bits of plastic and ultimately a plastic shopping bag that to a turtle resembles a jelly fish. Apparently more and more turtles are being found floating in the area, alive but unable to dive due to the injested plastics.
According to the United Nations Environment Program, plastic is killing a million seabirds each year as well as over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles.
The benefits of plastic have been phenomenal but except for the small amounts that are incinerated every single molecule of plastic that has ever been produced are still somewhere in the environment. A dead Alatross was recently found with a piece of plastic from the 1940's in its stomach.
The problem is that in the ocean the plastic bottle that you dropped today will break down over time helped along by the wind and the tides and the caustic nature of the ocean in to tiny plastic molecules which will ultimately be injested by fish and enter the food chain leading them straight back to your table.
For an insight into the plastic that is choking our seas and the people that are researching and trying to combat this alarming problem check out
'Garbage Island' on Vice Magazine's VBS TVPics by A.D.
