June 30, 2010
By Tyson Bottenus
Aboard the SSV Corwith Cramer, there are signs posted on the walls dictating where waste can be dumped overboard. If we're less than three miles offshore, our waste stays in the trash can. Absolutely nothing can be thrown overboard. Past three miles, unless our waste is ground to less than an inch thick, we still won't dump our waste. Past twelve miles, we can throw pretty much anything overboard except plastic and dunnage (packing material used to keep ship's cargo in place). And past twenty-five miles, well, anything goes.
Except plastic.
This is because plastic doesn't follow the rules like other materials. No matter where you dump the stuff, it'll always manage to find some remote island beach to float towards. It doesn't care about political boundaries or international legislation. It doesn't attend stakeholder meetings about which fisheries are being depleted or where fish spawns are occurring. Plastic follows the winds and the currents.
Every night during midwatch (2300 to 0300 hours), we dump our biodegradable scraps overboard. Any metal we chuck over the side sinks to the bottom, any paper will disintegrate into a pulpy mess. The little marine organisms we've been catching in our neuston nets take care of any remnant food scraps. We log where and how much trash we dump overboard in a yellow binder that stays in the galley.
Next to every trash can that we throw overboard is a second trash can labeled "PLASTIC". We don't dump the contents of these bins. In the heads you'll find dental floss tangled in this trash can. In the saloon you might find an old ziplock bag that once held dinner. If you go into the lab, you might find some purple latex gloves that were used that day to look for microbial growth on recovered plastic pieces. We stow our plastic trash onboard until we get back to port, where it's disposed of properly.
Only since 1988 when MARPOL, the MARine POLlution annex created by the United Nations International Maritime Organization, was ratified has this been the legal standard in international waters. How effective has it been? This is one question that SEA's data may yet answer – we've been sampling plastics in the North Atlantic for the past 25 years.
In 1987, Congress enacted the Marine Plastic Pollution Research and Control Act. This act created a committee charged with furthering research on the topic and fostering outreach efforts about plastic debris. But Congress allowed this committee to lapse in 1998. Attention to the matter has declined until recently.
More outreach and international attention is needed. The message needs to get out that plastic is here and will persist for generations to come. Here at SEA, the SSV Corwith Cramer will do its part by keeping track of and reducing its plastic footprint.
I hope other countries and organizations will follow.
