State of the Oceans — Log 108
YOUR WEEKLY BRIEFING FROM PARLEY
Photo by Chris Jordan, Albatross
POLICY
Support is growing for a new global treaty to combat the plastic pollution crisis – based on past agreements like the Kyoto and Paris climate accords and the Montréal protocol banning CFCs. A UN working group on marine litter and microplastics met at a virtual conference last week to discuss the issue, though so far without arguably the largest waste producer, the US – which has yet to signal their participation. The UN Environment assembly, which set up the ad hoc working group on marine plastics in 2017, concluded that the existing international legal framework governing plastic pollution is fragmented and ineffective. Several delegations voiced support of a new global agreement, although there was no consensus on whether it would only address marine plastic litter or go further to tackle plastics pollution as a whole – and whether it would be legally binding.
PLASTIC POLLUTION
A new report looking at plastic pollution in US waters has found almost 1,800 cases of plastic entanglement or ingestion affecting 40 species since 2009, which is likely an underestimate as humans only see a small fraction of animal deaths in the ocean. The plastic culprits go beyond usual suspects, like six-pack rings, balloons, plastic bags, fishing line – and include food wrappers, sponges, dental floss and even plastic Easter grass. Plastic in the US alone affects more than a dozen species at risk of extinction — including sea turtles, Hawaiian monk seals and sei whales. The findings come as microplastic was discovered near the summit of Mount Everest this week. The plastic particles were found in every single snow sample collected from 11 locations on Everest, with the highest concentrations found near Base Camp. The fibers were most likely to have come from the clothing, tents and ropes used by mountaineers, the scientists said.
CLIMATE ANXIETY
More than half of child and adolescent psychiatrists in England are seeing patients distressed about the state of the environment, a survey has revealed. Among child and adolescent psychiatrists in England, 57.3% have dealt with issues raised by younger people about our planet. This was almost 10 points higher than among respondents dealing with all age groups, at 47.9%. Researchers said younger generations are growing up with a constant backdrop of understandable fear and worry about the future of the planet. Along with pressures from social media, doubts about misinformation and now Covid-19 and the economic crisis, she said it was taking a toll on the mental health of the young. The organisation has drawn up a list of signs of eco-distress – a low mood, helplessness, anger, insomnia, panic and guilt – and proposed strategies to avoid these feelings becoming overwhelming.
TOXIC AGE
The sinking carcasses of fish from near-surface waters deliver toxic mercury pollution to the most remote and inaccessible parts of the world's oceans, including the 36,000-foot-deep Mariana Trench in the northwest Pacific. Two main conclusions of a University of Michigan-led research team were that most of that mercury began its long journey to the deep-sea trenches as atmospheric emissions from coal-fired power plants, mining operations, cement factories, incinerators and other human activities. A likely explanation is that sinking carrion from fish that feed in the upper ocean delivers most of the mercury to the trenches. This is useful and important for scientists and policymakers to know as they want to monitor how changing global mercury emissions will affect the levels found in seafood.
CONSERVATION
An international research team led by UK scientists has revealed the return of critically endangered Antarctic blue whales to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, 50 years after whaling all but wiped them out. Blue whales were abundant off South Georgia before early 20th century industrial whaling between 1904 and 1971 killed 42,698 of them there. Most of the animals were killed before the mid-1930s. The discovery, based on analysis of 30 years’ worth of sightings, photographs and underwater sound recordings, is crucial evidence in learning how the species is recovering following a ban on commercial whaling in the 1960s. A 2020 survey in February resulted in 58 blue whale sightings, and numerous acoustic detections. The new study follows recent research that humpback whales are also returning to the region.
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