Beach Cleaning Report: The Problem Of Marine Debris

Introduction

Marine debris has become a worldwide problem in recent years. Due to the busy human commercial activities through the ocean and land-based waste, marine debris is polluting the marine environment. In this report, the main source of marine debris will be explained and the solutions will be discussed as well.

Aim of study

The goal that we tend to achieve through this study is to find out the main source of marine litter of the beaches in Auckland and find some possible solutions to solve the problem of marine debris.

Methodology

The data was collected by different groups in different beaches in Auckland. Besides, the data is analyzed and represented by bar graphs and pie chart. However, the data is not complete as some groups haven’t recorded the length of beaches such as Blockhouse Bay, this had increased the difficulties of analyzing the final data and led to inaccurate to some extent. Additionally, there are two groups collected data of the same beach which is Graham, and two series of data are different. This makes it difficult to decide which data should be used.

Discussion

According to the filed work result, there are ten main resources consists of marine debris, of which plastic pieces, broken glass and polystyrene are ranking top three. Marine debris are basically classified to six different types based on human activities which are merchant ship trash produced by crew, the cargo waste of merchant ship, tourism activity, fishing boat, passenger lines, and offshore oil production. Among them, cargo waste of merchant ship and the tourism activity may cause most of the marine debris since most trash that was found in beaches is plastic pieces, broken glass, and polystyrene. This is because that Auckland is both a tourism city and commercial hub. The large quantity of merchant ship contributes the most cargo waste in the sea and some of the litter will be brought to the coast by current, waves, and tides. Besides, as a big tourist city, beaches are ideal hotspot to visit. As cigarettes, food wrappers and lollipop sticks are frequently found in the beaches, it further reveals that tourism activity is another main resource of marine debris.

While each group has collected litters within different distances, the total count of marine debris in the beach list is not reliable. However, as the collecting distance was recorded as well, calculating the marine debris that was collected per meter will be much more accurate. With respect to figure two, beaches, for instance, Ladies beach, Wiroa Island, and Boulder Bay are the most polluted beaches while Bethells, Melleons Bay, and Point Chevallier are the least polluted beaches. At the same time, regarding figure three, interestingly, most polluted beaches are mostly concentrated in the north of Auckland city and east Auckland, for instance, Ladies Bay in east Auckland and Takapuna in North Shore. This is probably because of there beaches are facing Pacific Ocean, therefore, the currents from South Pacific gyre and waves might bring the trash to the beaches. Besides, since most of the polluted beaches are tourist hotspot such as Ladies Bay, and commercial area, for instance, Takapuna, tourists activities and commercial activities contribute more to the coast trash. Furthermore, different types of marine debris are found in different beaches. According to figure four, broken glass is mostly found in Ladies Bay, which is because there are a lot of people bring bottle drinks to the beach. Besides, plastic pieces are mostly found in Takapuna since Takapuna is one of the most famous tourist beaches and there are commercial areas, for instance, shopping centre, it is not surprised to find plastic pieces in the beaches. At the same time, polystyrene is mostly found in Wiroa Island which is near the airport.

This is mainly because that polystyrene is much used in the airport and passengers around the area may use polystyrene material things. Moreover, the marine debris is likely to have a seasonally shifting. From the marine litters found in the filed work, plastic pieces, broken glass, and cigarette butts are three most dangerous marine hazards to humans and marine life. Besides, broken glass is a potential hazard for human as beaches are open for the public and people are more likely to be barefoot walking around the coast. Therefore, broken glass is likely to hurt human and is dangerous marine debris. Moreover, because plastic pieces are usually mistakenly taken by sea life as food, it harms large quantity of marine animals and pollute the ocean. At the same time, cigarette butts are also mistakenly taken by marine life easily, however, cigarettes are toxic and deadly pollutants to marine life.

Take actions to alleviate the situationGenerally speaking, there are two main source of marine debris which are land-based debris and vessel debris. First of all, land-based debris is one of the most crucial pollution. Waterborne urban and industrial solid waste, sewage, terrain litter that has been discharged into coastal or marine environment are the three main land-based marine debris sources.

Inappropriate management system and too much human activities have aggregate the problem of marine debris. Government agencies, management department, social media should be responsible for the alleviation of this problem. Secondly, as mentioned above, vessel debris, for in stance, cargo waste from merchant ship and merchant ship debris produced by crew. Vessel debris is another significant main source of marine litter. Government agencies, management department, social media should be responsible for the alleviation of this problem. To make a better improvement, all the parties should cooperate together working on reducing the amount of marine debris. First of all, relative regulatory policies should be implemented and enforced by government and management department and build political commitment as well. Cargo waste and trash produced by crew should be controlled strictly. The use of plastic use and the process of garbage waste should be restricted. For example, more and more countries are putting effort in against marine litters and in 2016, during United Nation Environment Assembly, countries unanimously agreed on three specific goals on reducing the marine debris. Non-profitable organizations should contribute to reducing marine debris as well. Organizations can organize activities such as beach clean up to rise public awareness.

Organizations such as Global Partnership on Marine Litter which brings policymaker, civil society actors, the scientific community to discuss solutions and catalyze actions is reminding policymakers to do the right decisions about the environment. Media is another essential way. For instance, by promoting the significant results of marine debris such as Great Pacific garbage Patch on TV or Newspaper, public awareness of marine debris should be raised. Besides, to meet the need of marine debris control, educational programs should be established, for instance, the effect of recycling, minimization and reuse on reducing the extent marine debris. Source reduction is another effective way, packaging, food wrapping, and products that are mostly found in marine debris. For instance, most Countdowns in Auckland has stopped providing plastic bags to reduce the amount of plastic trash. The importance of rising the awareness of tourists should be paid attention to as well. As the bottle and cigarette butts are found in the coast, the public has the responsibility to protect the marine environment as well. At the same time, the distance between rubbish bins placed near the beach should be shorter and the amount of bins should be increased as well.

Conclusion

As we have found out that the main sources of marine debris are plastic pieces and broken glass which are mainly produced by human activities such as merchant ship. Measures such as government regulatory policies and education programs should be taken to tackle this problem.