Removal of derelict fishing gear has major economic impact

by David Malmquist | January 21, 2016

Study shows Bay watermen earned extra $20M from removal of ghost pots

A new study by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science
shows that a 6-year program to remove derelict crab pots from lower
Chesapeake Bay generated more than $20 million in harvest value for area
watermen.

Lead author Andrew Scheld, an assistant professor at VIMS, says “it’s
well known that derelict fishing gear can harm the environment and
increase crab mortality, but the economic impacts of this ‘ghost
fishing’ have rarely been quantified. Our study shows that VIMS’
collaborative efforts to remove ghost crab pots from the lower Bay led
to an additional 13,504 metric tons in harvest valued at $21.3 million—a
27% increase above that which would have occurred had the pots stayed in
place.”

The study, co-authored by VIMS professors Donna Bilkovic and Kirk
Havens, appears in today’s issue of Scientific Reports, an online,
open-access journal from the publishers of Nature. The research was
supported by NOAA’ s Marine Debris Program.

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Plastic debris crossing the Pacific can transport more species with the
help of barnacles

FEBRUARY 3, 2016
MICHELLE NEELEY
PHOTOGRAPHER: MARINA GARLAND

The smooth surfaces of much of the plastic waste rapidly increasing in
the ocean appear to provide poor habitat for animals — that is, until
barnacles step in.

University of Florida researchers discovered that diverse communities of
rafting animals can inhabit even the smoothest pieces of plastic debris
if barnacles step in first to create complex habitat, similar to trees
in a rainforest or corals in a reef. That means plastics could better
transport foreign species across oceans than previously believed, said
Mike Gil, who, as a doctoral candidate at UF, led the study published
Jan. 27 in Scientific Reports.

Now the bad news: While conservationists generally aim to preserve
biological diversity, Gil said, the diversity found on plastic debris
could be harmful.

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http://www.clearblueoceans.org/#!our-mission/galleryPage

The CBO Foundation of Canada (CBO Foundation) is committed to doing
whatever it takes to Change The World’s View Of Plastic Waste. It will
accomplish this by increasing awareness of the plastic packaging waste
issue and ocean impact, and monetizing all plastic waste to engage
citizens worldwide to become part of a viable solution to this waste
issue, one the CBO Foundation developed to collect and eliminate this
waste from our local landfills, and thereby our oceans.

The CBO Foundation, its business partners and employees will never be
anti-plastic or point fingers at the obvious parties who have
contributed to this waste issue. We are all guilty in some way for the
issue we face. Instead – through the CBO Tribe of Ocean Activists we
will accept our individual responsibility for this issue and work
together with the product retailers and manufactures, and our fellow
members in a united way to solve the problem, or at minimum, seeks to
reverse the growing and damaging trends of the 1,200 tons per hour of
plastic waste entering our oceans at the source.

http://youtu.be/5n_6ZWpY0Ek

CBO Mission Statement

Published on 8 Jan 2015

CBO Foundation Founder/President Peter Douglas shares his organizations
mission statement and core objective of changing the World’s View of
Plastic Waste. Learn more at ClearBlueOceans.org

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Belinda Waymouth
Environmental journalist and advocate, UCLA geography/environmental
studies graduate, mother

Plastic: It’s What’s for Dinner

Posted: 01/27/2015 8:44 pm EST Updated: 01/27/2015 8:59 pm EST

The day of ecological reckoning looms over us. I am not talking about
whether the Keystone XL Pipeline gets rammed through our backyards. I am
down the rabbit hole of environmental concern with another problematic
petrochemical — plastic.

We get plastic from oil, and have ingeniously transformed this
hydrocarbon polymer into a multitude of plastic things, giving our lives
a facade of durable-but-lightweight convenience.

Meantime there’s mounting evidence the dark side of plastic is much more
than we bargained for, or can cope with.

First off, the wholesale recyclability of plastic is a happy ending
environmental types — such as your author — want to believe. But in
the U.S less than 10 percent of plastic gets recycled. And, even when it
is recycled, the amount has become overwhelming. Globally there’ll be 45
million tons of plastic scrap looking to be recycled this year.

Most scrapped plastic ends up in China, bound for the Wen’an region.
Once a bucolic piece of countryside, Wen’an is now a toxic cesspit,
where people are paralyzed by off-the-chart blood pressure problems,
after enduring horrendous work conditions in a bid to recycle — or
otherwise dispose of — all the plastic.

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Public awareness and engagement are key components to reducing the flow
of plastic waste into our oceans. The Algalita POPS Youth Summit offers
students a chance to learn about current scientific research on plastic
pollution, share their action projects with their peers, and work
directly with mentors to help improve their projects? next steps.
2015 POPS International Youth Summit Website >>

http://2015.algalitayouthsummit.org

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http://www.3rfish.org/en/proyecto.html

Integral Management Model of recovery and recycling of the proper solid
wastes from the fishing and port activities
(3RFISH)

3R FISH is a project launched within the framework of the European
programme LIFE+ (Component 2: Environment Policy and Governance, 2007)
to be implemented over the period 2009-2011.

The main objective is to improve the quality of marine waters and seabed
through the correct use of the devices and equipment that are handling
in the fishing sector, together with the proper solid waste management
and recycling from those activities. It represents a key component in a
strategy of fisheries and ports? sustainable development, according to
the European Union (EU) policy guidelines, as the Common Fisheries
Policy, the Integrated Maritime Policy, the Integrated Coastal Zone
Management and the Thematic Strategy on the prevention and recycling of
waste.

http://www.3rfish.org/en/documentacion.html

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Welcome at the start of a much cleaner ocean!

The Saraswater Foundation developed a cleaning unit to retrieve plastic
garbage from the water

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