Study finds rising levels of plastics in oceans

Plastics weighing 191 times as much as the Titanic are dumped in the oceans every year as nations led by countries in Asia struggle to manage waste, the first study to quantify the problem showed.

From NYTimes by John Schwartz

Some eight million metric tons of plastic waste makes its way into the world’s oceans each year, and the amount of the debris is likely to increase greatly over the next decade unless nations take strong measures to dispose of their trash responsibly, new research suggests.

The report, which appeared in the journal Science on Thursday, is the most ambitious effort yet to estimate how much plastic debris ends up in the sea.

Indian fishermen pushed their boat through plastic waste last month in Mumbai.

Credit Punit Paranjpe/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia and lead author of the study, said the amount of plastic that entered the oceans in the year measured, 2010, might be as little as 4.8 million metric tons or as much as 12.7 million.

The paper’s middle figure of eight million, she said, is the equivalent of “five plastic grocery bags filled with plastic for every foot of coastline in the world” — a visualization that, she said, “sort of blew my mind.”

By 2025, she said, the amount of plastic projected to be entering the oceans would constitute the equivalent of 10 bags per foot of coastline.
 

 Kuta beach, Indonesia, strewn with plastic litter.
Up to 83% of waste is mismanaged in the country.
Photograph: Agung Parameswara/Getty Images

The researchers, from the United States and Australia, derived their estimates through a complex calculation that began with the overall mass of waste produced per person annually in 192 nations that have coastlines, worked through the proportion of that waste likely to be plastic, and how much of the plastic could end up in the ocean because of each nation’s waste management practices.

The researchers then projected the amount of waste going forward based on population growth estimates.

 Any walk along a beach will produce a sizeable haul of plastic waste

“This is a significant study,” said Nancy Wallace, director of the marine debris program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who saw the paper before it was published.

Ms. Wallace applauded what she considered the sophisticated use of available data to estimate the amount of plastic entering the marine environment, both collectively and country by country.

“Of course we know these aren’t absolute numbers, but it gives us an idea of the magnitude, and where we might need to focus our efforts to affect the issue,” she said.

In 2010, 192 countries produced a total of 2.5 billion metric tones of solid waste, including 275 million metric tons of plastic.

An estimated 8 million metric tons entered the ocean that year

The research also lists the world’s 20 worst plastic polluters, from China to the United States, based on such factors as size of coastal population and national plastic production.

According to the estimate, China tops the list, producing as much as 3.5 million metric tons of marine debris each year.

The United States, which generates as much as 110,000 metric tons of marine debris a year, came in at No. 20.

While Americans generate 2.6 kilograms of waste per person per day, or 5.7 pounds, to China’s 1.10 kilograms, the United States ranked lower on the list because of its more efficient waste management, Professor Jambeck said.

Inside the Garbage of the World Documentary from Philippe Carillo

Is the Plastic Trash Island floating in the Pacific Ocean a myth?
Are we getting poisoned?
How long do we have before a worldwide disaster happen?

Plastics have been spotted in the oceans since the 1970s.

In the intervening decades, masses of junk have been observed floating where ocean currents come together, and debris can be found on the remotest beaches and in arctic sea ice.

 Debris from urban activities and runoff accumulates at the edge of Lake Michigan.

(Courtesy Jenna Jambeck/University of Georgia)

The problem is more than an aesthetic one: Exposed to saltwater and sun, and the jostling of the surf, the debris shreds into tiny pieces that become coated with toxic substances like PCBs and other pollutants.

Research into the marine food chain suggests that fish and other organisms consume the bite-size particles and may reabsorb the toxic substances.

Those fish are eaten by other fish, and by people.

Cleaning up the plastic once it is in the oceans is impractical; only a portion of it floats, while most disappears, and presumably what does not wash ashore settles to the bottom.

Any collection system fine enough to capture the smaller particles would also pick up enormous amounts of marine life.

So the best option, Professor Jambeck and others suggest, is to improve waste management ashore.

But prodding developing countries to spend money on waste management is difficult, she acknowledged.

“You’ve got critical infrastructure needs first, like clean drinking water,” she said.

“It’s kind of easy to push waste to the side.”

Over the years she has pursued this line of research, Professor Jambeck said, she has seen a strong, even visceral response from the public.

“You can see waste,” she said.

“Not that people want to.”

Links :

• BBC : Plastic waste heading for oceans quantified
• The Guardian : Coastal communities dumping 8m tonnes of plastic in oceans every year / Ocean plastic is likely disappearing into the food chain, new study indicates
• WSJ : Which countries create the most ocean trash? 
• CNN : How much are we trashing our oceans?
• GeoGarage blog : "Recycled Island" turns ocean plastic into a paradise / Study measures Atlantic plastic accumulation / How much plastic is in the ocean ? / Book review: Plastic Ocean / The Ocean Cleanup : it could work / Ocean garbage patch is mysteriously disappearing
  / This floating platform could filter the plastic from our polluted oceans / This Hawaiian Island is so polluted with plastic that it might become a superfund site / First of its kind map reveals extent of ocean plastic / Full scale of plastic in the world's oceans revealed for first time

The $1 billion superyacht: Bigger, longer, but is it better?

 4Yacht, Inc. presents yacht project "Triple Deuce", a whopping 222 meters (728.4’) long, and the most expensive, at a cost of over one billion dollars...
4Yacht is not able to provide more details, such as the designer, or the volume.
They did release information about the engines; triple gas turbine engines producing over 100,000 horsepower, powering electric podded propulsion units.
Adding such features will almost certainly add more time to the total construction time, putting more pressure on the 2018 delivery date.
Time will tell if construction of this project will eventually commence.

From CNN by Sheena McKenzie

There's big. And then there's bigger.

Introducing "Triple Deuce," set to be the world's biggest superyacht at a whopping 222 meters long.

At $1 billion, it will also be the most expensive private yacht ever built, costing more than the annual GDP of Western Sahara, the British Virgin Islands, and Micronesia.
The identity of "Triple Deuce's" owner remains secret.
Nonetheless, building a yacht of this size is all about "boasting rights," said Craig Timm of 4Yacht, broker of the record-breaking project.
"It's just like the competition to build the world's tallest building," he said of the commission, due to be completed in spring 2018.
"Project Deuce will cost $1.1 billion to $1.2 billion," added Timm.
"And don't forget to add in annual operating costs -- on a yacht of this size, it will run the owner up an additional $20 to $30 million per year."

The boat will be over 40 meters longer than the world's current biggest superyacht, "Azzam," believed to be owned by the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
It will also trump Russian businessman Roman Abramovich's "Eclipse" by 58.5 meters.

At 180 meters long, "Azzam" is currently the biggest superyacht in the world... but for how long?

"Our client was concerned that if we built the yacht to 200 meters, then someone would come along like Roman Abramovich when he built "Eclipse" at 163.5 meters, and outdid Sheikh Maktoum's yacht, the 162 meter "Dubai," by only 1.5 meters," explained Timm.
"By building the yacht to 222 meters, the owner wants to make it difficult, if not impossible, to be 'eclipsed' himself."

As the race to build the world's biggest superyacht steps up a notch, is there a point when these floating palaces simply become "too big?"
"You can't really be 'too big' for the high seas. But these superyachts are now at such a size that many of them can't get into harbors," said John Kampfner, author of "The Rich: From slaves to superyachts, a 2,000 year history."
"So what they do is moor out at sea, and a small boat -- which is still enormous by the standards of ordinary mortals -- will take them to shore. Or they could always jump on their helicopter, because no self-respecting superyacht comes without a helipad these days."

In the past two decades average superyacht sizes have more than doubled, according to Gaelle Tallarida, managing director of the Monaco Yacht Show.
"Fifteen years ago a large yacht was 45 meters," she said.
"Whereas now it's 100 meters long, maybe even a little more," she said.
"And I think we have still not achieved the limit."
"Triple Deuce's" master suite alone encompasses two stories and stretches across 275 square meters -- including a private gym. The seven-deck superyacht also comes with two pools, numerous jacuzzi, and a hair stylist and barber.

Yet in a global climate of "haves and have-nots," is it morally justifiable to spend $1 billion on a private yacht catering for 36 guests?
"To be honest, what ordinary mortals think is 'moral,' is not actually relevant to these people," said Kampfner.
"You have to understand that we're not talking about the top 1% -- in this instance we're talking about the 0.01%. This is a tiny group who live in their own bubble, they mix only among themselves."

Timm sees things differently, pointing to the employment opportunities created during the building and running of the superyacht.
"The boat will take approximately two to three million human hours to build -- not counting all the worldwide subcontractor hours, or the ready-made items already available on the market ready to be installed on the yacht," he said.
"Building the yacht at the shipyard will directly employ, at the minimum, 500 people for a period of three years. These people, who have families to support and feed, will be gainfully employed.
"And this does not include the 50 to 70 people who will work on the yacht and will be employed full time by the yacht owner, as well as others who supply the yacht."

He extends this reasoning to the media -- "You, the journalist, benefits from this build indirectly by being gainfully employed by CNN for writing this story."

And you, the person reading this story?
Kampfer sees the public's interest in the lifestyles of the super rich as a type of luxury porn.
"There is an enormous sense of injustice which is shared not just by the poor, but also by the middle class, towards the global super rich," he said.
"But together with that however, is a sense of envy and ogling. So whether you call it confusion, or double standards, or hypocrisy, or whatever it might be -- we both abhor the lifestyles of the super rich and at the same time we are endlessly fascinated by them."

NZ Linz update in the Marine GeoGarage

Coverage NZ Linz Marine GeoGarage layer

As our public viewer is not yet available
(currently under construction, upgrading to a new webmapping technology as Google Maps v2 is officially no more supported),
this info is primarily intended to our universal mobile application users
(Marine NZ iPhone-iPad on the Apple Store/ Weather 4D Android -App-in- on the PlayStore)
and our B2B customers which use our nautical charts layers
in their own webmapping applications through our GeoGarage API.  

1 chart has been updated in the Marine GeoGarage

(Linz January update published February 6, 2015 (Updated to NTM Edition 2, 23 January 2015)

• NZ5324 Tamaki Strait and Approaches including Waiheke Island

Today NZ Linz charts (183 charts / 323 including sub-charts) are displayed in the Marine GeoGarage.

Note :  LINZ produces official nautical charts to aid safe navigation in New Zealand waters and certain areas of Antarctica and the South-West Pacific.

Using charts safely involves keeping them up-to-date using Notices to Mariners
Reporting a Hazard to Navigation - H Note :
Mariners are requested to advise the New Zealand Hydrographic Authority at LINZ of the discovery of new or suspected dangers to navigation, or shortcomings in charts or publications.

Before we damage the oceans any further, it would be nice to know what actually lives there

From WashingtonPost by Chris Mooney

In case you haven’t heard yet, humans are wrecking the oceans.
That doesn’t just mean that significant swaths of ocean life could go extinct — it means some kinds of life could go extinct before we ever even know they existed at all.
In fact, scientists estimate that they have never even given a name to some 33 to 91 percent of the different organisms living in the global oceans.
(Given our lack of knowledge, the large range here is understandable.)
“Just the other week, a paper came out saying that we might be facing a mass extinction in the ocean,” notes Smithsonian Institution marine researcher Nancy Knowlton.
“But actually, we don’t really know what lives in the ocean, apart from a handful of large things like fishes, corals and some snails.”

 Nancy Knowlton diving towards an “underwater condo,” freshly placed in the Red Sea.

Photo Credit: Michael Berumen

Knowlton is part of a pretty clever research solution to this problem — what she calls “underwater condos” (pictured above).
Their scientific name is significantly less cool: ARMS, or Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures.
The condos are built out of square plates, in a stack of 10, with gaps that let marine organisms go in and out.
They make a new home, so to speak, and then scientists can remove the plates and see what actually lives there. Like this:

 An “underwater condo” plate.

Credit: Matthieu Leray

In a new study out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Knowlton and fellow Smithsonian Institution researcher Matthieu Leray report on what these underwater homes have allowed them to do — namely, categorize large volumes of marine life, including many previously unknown species.
For the study, they examined plates from 18 condos that had been installed on oyster reefs off the coasts of Virginia and Florida.
Such oyster beds, notes the paper, are teeming with life, just like coral reefs are – and are in similar peril.
As many as 85 percent of them have been “lost due to anthropogenic impacts,” says the study — meaning the life in and around the beds may also have been lost.

The scientists used DNA sequencing to rapidly process information about all the life found on plates, sampling the DNA of the new organisms and matching it with known sequences.
Not only did the researchers find that a large diversity of life came to live in the condos — some 2,000 different types of living things after the structures had been in place for 6 months.
But less than 15 percent of the resulting genetic sequences corresponded with known organisms whose DNA is already categorized in scientific databases.

And, it is important to note, this was just from sampling marine life off the coasts of Florida and Virginia.
There are far more unexamined parts of the world ocean.
Fortunately, the condos work everywhere, says Knowlton.
The Smithsonian’s MarineGEO program has installed hundreds of them around the world in the hope of learning more about species — before they vanish.
“We have them in 700 feet in Curacao for example, on the carbon dioxide seeps of Papua New Guinea that simulate an acid ocean of the future, and someday we hope to get them to Antarctica,” Knowlton says.
That won’t save the oceans — but it will definitely help create a much better DNA record of what evolution toiled, over vast periods, to produce.
“When people talk about threats to biodiversity or protecting biodiversity, until these methods were developed we really didn’t know how to study it,” says Knowlton.

How sticks and shell charts became a sophisticated system for navigation

The stick chart shows several of the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific Ocean.

The long curving pieces indicate the dominant direction of swells (waves that have traveled over very long distances).

Skilled navigators could use a chart like this to recognize wave patterns and find their way.

From SmithsonianMag by Cari Romm

Sailors navigating with sextant, compass and maps found in the Marshall Islands that curved sticks and cowry shells were far more sophisticated

In 1899, Charles Townsend and H.F. Moore—both scientists with the U.S. Fish Commission—set out on the steamer Albatross, the first ship of its size dedicated entirely to scientific research, for an expedition to the islands of the South Pacific.

The sailors aboard the Albatross navigated their way across the globe as U.S. sailors did at the time: with a compass and a sextant—a tool that used the angles of the sun and the horizon to calculate latitude—and, of course, maps.
At the end of the ship’s journey, though, were sailors of a very different kind—sailors whose knowledge of the ocean was based on cultural knowledge passed down through generations.
The stick charts of the Marshall Islands were first described for a Western audience in an 1862 edition of Nautical magazine by missionary L.H. Gulick.
“[The Marshallese] construct rude maps by which they retain and impart knowledge regarding the direction and distance of the various groups” of islands, he wrote.
“These maps consist of small sticks tied together in straight or curved lines, intended to represent the currents or waves to be met, while the islands are to be found at certain points where these lines meet.”

The chart is less a literal representation of the sea,

but more an abstract illustration of the ways that ocean swells interact with land.

(National Museum of Natural History)

Using funds that the Smithsonian had given them to collect objects along their voyage, Townsend and Moore purchased one such chart, which they gave to the National Museum of Natural History in 1900.
But Gulick’s description of these “maps” wasn’t quite accurate: The chart is less a literal representation of the sea, says museum curator and anthropologist Adrienne Kaeppler, and more an abstract illustration of the ways that ocean swells interact with land.
Curved sticks, she explains, show where swells are deflected by an island; short, straight strips often indicate currents near islands; longer strips “may indicate the direction in which certain islands are to be found;” and small cowry shells represent the islands themselves.

 Marshall islands with the Marine GeoGarage

In places like the Marshall Islands—a tiny nation of roughly 112 square miles, spread across 29 atolls and five islands—“Survival depends on knowledge of and rapport with the sea,” Kaeppler says.
“This requires knowledge of how to get across the sea, how to exploit it for food, and what to do when devastated by it—[by] hurricanes, tidal waves, or storms.”
The Marshallese built this essential knowledge by studying the charts on land; by the time a sailor took to the ocean, he would have fully absorbed the lessons contained within the patterns of the sticks.
The stick chart is an instructional tool, one meant for use before a voyage, rather than something to be used for real-time navigation.

In places like the Marshall Islands, survival depends on a knowledge and rapport with the sea.

(© W. Robert Moore/National Geographic Society/Corbis)

“They seem to have focused on one particular environmental phenomenon, which is the waves and the currents, and then developed that into a more elaborate system,” explains Joseph Genz, a professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii who wrote his dissertation on the subject. “They’re picking out repeating patterns in the waves, and for them, those give reliable signals as to where land is.”
As a graduate student in 2005, Genz traveled to the Marshall Islands with a team of anthropologists and oceanographers for what he calls a “revival project.”
Traditional navigational knowledge, he says, was dying out with the islands’ oldest generation, and the team from the University of Hawaii agreed to help the elders document and resurrect the Marshallese understanding of the seas.

 Stick Charts and Water Wave Navigation

Using a combination of satellite imagery, computer modelling and a buoy to measure wave frequency, size and direction, they were able to “validate and confirm some of the local explanations with the scientific explanations,” Genz says—but out on the water, away from their equipment, the researchers still found themselves at a loss to explain some of the things the Marshallese seemed to know instinctively.
“A lot of times the navigator would say, ‘There’s the wave, can you feel it?’ and I’d say, ‘No, I can’t,’” he recalls.
“Part of it was trying to feel what he was feeling, but not being able to see it.”

 Hundreds of years ago, Pacific Islanders used voyaging canoes to travel.

They developed navigation techniques to steer across the ocean without instruments or charts.

The Marshall Islands is a nation in the western Pacific.

The land is formed from low-lying coral atolls and islands.

Many of the lessons contained within the stick charts, in other words, have yet to be fully understood. “It’s quite possible that the traditional knowledge of the ocean in the Marshalls could somehow provide insight into science itself,” he says.
“So often, we think about science as trying to make sense of everything else in the world, but it could also be the other way around. This local oceanographic knowledge might influence our scientific understanding as well.”

Links :

• GeoGarage blog :  The greatest maps in history, collected in one fantastic book / The great challenge of mapping the sea