Industrialised fishing nations largely contribute to floating plastic pollution in the North Pacific subtropical gyre

Abstract

The subtropical oceanic gyre in the North Pacific Ocean is currently covered with tens of thousands of tonnes of floating plastic debris, dispersed over millions of square kilometres. A large fraction is composed of fishing nets and ropes while the rest is mostly composed of hard plastic objects and fragments, sometimes carrying evidence on their origin. In 2019, an oceanographic mission conducted in the area, retrieved over 6000 hard plastic debris items > 5 cm. The debris was later sorted, counted, weighed, and analysed for evidence of origin and age. Our results, complemented with numerical model simulations and findings from a previous oceanographic mission, revealed that a majority of the floating material stems from fishing activities. While recent assessments for plastic inputs into the ocean point to coastal developing economies and rivers as major contributors into oceanic plastic pollution, here we show that most floating plastics in the North Pacific subtropical gyre can be traced back to five industrialised fishing nations, highlighting the important role the fishing industry plays in the solution to this global issue.

Where does Arctic beach debris come from? Analyzing debris composition and provenance on Svalbard aided by citizen scientists

“…This concurs with reports from Antarctica, where the shores of Bird Island and Signy Island saw 59% and 69% fisheries-related debris mass, respectively (Waluda et al, 2020). Likewise, in the North Pacific subtropical gyre, fisheries-related debris accounted for 90% of the mass (Lebreton et al, 2022). A common trait of remote and uninhabited areas could be that they harbor more sea-based debris than household-plastics, since recent estimates suggest that 2% of all fishing gear used globally could be emitted to the ocean every year (Richardson et al, 2022).…”

A comprehensive assessment of plastic remediation technologies

“…Targeting plastic in smaller water bodies is technologically easier than removing plastics from the open ocean where, due to a dilution effect, it is more challenging to remove. However, new evidence indicates that plastic in the open ocean, such as in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is largely due to fishing activities (Lebreton et al, 2022). Therefore, clean-up technologies in seas and oceans can positively contribute to the removal of plastic deriving from wrongly discharged fishing items as well as the waste brought from the land.…”

“…Indication of plastic in the water column (Rowley et al, 2020) demonstrate the need for further research into targeting plastics at various levels of the water column, which is necessary to efficiently remove this persistent litter. In addition, novel evidence of plastic litter originating from land mainly being found nearshore (Lebreton et al, 2022) suggest that efforts in removing plastic waste from inland waterways, before they reach the shore, should be prioritized. Moreover, although WWTPs were tested for plastic removal, they currently rely on filtration systems not specifically designed for this purpose.…”

Microfluidics as a Ray of Hope for Microplastic Pollution

“…Back in the 1970s and 1980s, for instance, scientists warned global authorities against the production of marine plastic pollution as a significant environmental issue [ 6 ]. However, since the 1990s, and with the beginning of the new millennium, plastic waste floating in the marine ecosystem has become an immense floating mass, with a size that is greater than many countries’ territorial sizes [ 7 ]. In recent years, it has also been realized that sheared plastics or micron-sized plastics do not dissolve quickly in nature; in fact, MPs are passing through the food and water cycles from plastic waste to animals and from animals to humans [ 8 ].…”