Oceanic pollution is reaching catastrophic levels, threatening not just the beauty of nature and sea life, but our lives themselves. This is due to behaviors that are hard to change.
Unfortunately rivers and the sea are often considered a dump. As waste thrown in them disappears from sight very quickly, preventing any individual or collective awareness.
Actions to inform and Educate
The negligence of individuals is a major problem. This problem should be at the heart of the concerns of the people of this earth. At all times human waste was dumped into rivers and the sea, but it was a biodegradable material since our early history. In recent decades though, this is no longer the case. This is a first in the history of humanity.
Coastal open dumpsites and garbage islands are appearing. They are real time bombs. Unable to reduce their production of plastic waste and unable to transport them to a treatment site, island populations are forced to a nearby storage (near the lagoons or the coastline). These piles of waste are in full extension with the storage areas reaching saturation. They are at the mercy of the first natural disaster, like a cyclone, a tsunami or rising waters.
The infamous 2004 Tsunami for example, scattered most of the open dump sites in the region, including the Maldives, where the garbage polluted the 170 islands and islets nearby.
Actions to reduce, sort and revalorize
Regarding maritime transport, spills overboard, containers lost or abandoned at sea during storms and which one day release their cargo are all sources of marine pollution
80,000 pairs of sports shoes (Nike) found themselves in 1990 on the surface of the ocean. In 1997, it was an invasion of some 5 million pieces of Lego that ended up on the beaches of England.
Possible counteractions are GPS identification and tracking of containers and owners’ accountability.
Lack of means or will is another issue. Lack of resources and / or political will are obstacles to a significant improvement of the situation. Storage of waste in the form of open dumps near the coast or lagoons is a problem.
Actions to reduce, grind and compact
Offshore fishing is responsible for a large part of the plastic pollution from nautical and marine activities. Drift nets (ghost nets) weighing several hundred kilos and constituting real floating reefs are a plague for all marine species. Floats of coastal fishing activities (traps, nets, or pearl farm in Polynesia) litter the coastline.
One way to avoid getting all this junk in the sea is by starting to clean our houses and surroundings and make sure we use proper waste removal practices. If you need to rent a dumpster to handle all your home waste, then use a professional rolloff dumpster service if needed. Remember you will be making a service to yourself and to the earth, if your junk ends up in a landfill and not in the sea.