Page 28 - aruba-today-20190629

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 29 June 2019

40 tons of fishing nets retrieved in Pacific Ocean cleanup

June 18 to Honolulu, where The group plans to deploy ing up beaches, ridding
2 tons (1.8 metric tons) of dozens more GPS trackers shores of abandoned fish-
plastic trash were separat- and next year embark on ing nets, traps and other
ed from the haul of fishing a three-month trash col- gear and pushing for a re-
nets and donated to local lection expedition, Crowley duction on single-use plas-
artists to transform it into art said. It is estimated that be- tic containers.
work to educate people tween 600,000 and 800,000 Collecting the trash already
about ocean plastic pollu- metric tons of fishing gear in the gyres is also the goal
tion. The rest of the refuse is abandoned or lost dur- of The Ocean Cleanup
was turned over to a zero ing storms each year in the project, which was started
emissions energy plant that oceans, said Nick Mallos, by Dutch innovator Boyan
will incinerate it and turn it Director of the Trash Free Slat and last year first de-
into energy, she said. Seas Program at Ocean ployed a trash collection
A year before they went Conservancy, a nonprofit device to corral plastic lit-
to pick up the nets, the environmental advocacy ter floating in the Great Pa-
Sausalito, California-based group. cific Garbage Patch.
group gave sailors going Another 9 million tons (8 The group has raised mil-
from California to Hawaii million metric tons) of plas- lions of dollars from donors
buoyant GPS trackers the tic waste, including plastic around the world, includ-
size of bowling balls to at- bottles, bags, toys and oth- ing San Francisco billionaire
tach to the nets they en- er items, flow annually into Marc Benioff.
countered during their the ocean from beaches, The buoyant, 2,000-foot
voyage so they could be rivers and creeks, accord- (600-meter) long boom
tracked. ing to experts. was floating 800 miles
The group then sailed to The Ocean Voyages In- (1,300 kilometers) from Ha-
collect the nets entangled stitute is one of dozens of waii’s coast when it broke
with plastic chairs, bottles groups around the world apart under constant wind.
and other trash in an ef- trying to tackle the prob- After being repaired, it was
fort that cost $300,000. lem. Most focus on clean- re-deployed last week.q

Institute, shows a large net that was removed from the ocean Report: 174 dolphins died from red tide
This photo taken June 18, 2019, provided by the Ocean Voyages

during the Pacific gyre cleanup in Honolulu.
Associated Press bloom off Florida
By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ fished out the derelict nets
Associated Press from a marine gyre loca- By MICHAEL SCHNEIDER atypical places, Blair Mase, unusual food in the dol-
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — In tion where ocean currents Associated Press NOAA’s stranding response phins’ stomachs, such as
a mission to clean up trash converge between Ha- ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — program coordinator, said crabs and eels.
floating in the ocean, en- waii and California during Scores of dolphins have Friday. “We’re also seeing under-
vironmentalists pulled 40 their 25-day expedition, died along Florida’s south- Reseachers in recent weight animals,” Mase
tons (36 metric tons) of the group’s founder, Mary west coast due to the red months also have found said. q
abandoned fishing nets this Crowley, announced Fri- tide bloom in the past year,
month from an area known day. federal researchers said.
as the Great Pacific Gar- The group is among a Figures released by the
bage Patch. handful of nonprofits work- National Oceanic and At-
Mariners on a 140-foot ing to collect plastic trash mospheric Administration
(43-meter) cargo sailboat from the open ocean, an showed 174 dolphins were
outfitted with a crane voy- endeavor that can be stranded in a mass die-off
aged from Hawaii to the dangerous, time consum- between last July and last
heart of the Pacific Ocean, ing and expensive. week.
where they retrieved the “Our success should herald Fish, sea turtles and mana-
haul of mostly plastic fish- the way for us to do larger tees also have died from
ing nets as part of an effort clean ups and to inspire the red tide bloom, which
to rid the waters of the nets clean ups all throughout has plagued the southwest
that entangle whales, tur- the Pacific Ocean and Florida Gulf Coast since
tles and fish and damage throughout the world. It’s November 2017.
coral reefs. not something that we While red tide has dimin-
The volunteers with the need to wait to do,” Crow- ished since February and
California-based nonprofit ley said. the rate of dolphin deaths
Ocean Voyages Institute The cargo ship returned off Florida’s southwest
coast has slowed down, re-
searchers in recent months
have seen deaths from the
secondary effects of red
tide.
Those include dolphins
consuming fishing gear
because the red tide fish
kill-off reduced the supply
of the dolphin’s usual diet
of mullet and trout, forcing This undated photo provided by the Institute for Marine Mammal
them to search for food in Studies shows lesions on a dolphin at a shoreline.
Associated Press