Exaphone: It All Drains To The Ocean

Originally Published May 09, 2012; Last Updated March 22, 2018; Last Republished March 22, 2018:

Ocean researchers are continuing their expeditions to the North Pacific Ocean Subtropical Gyre (aka Pacific Garbage Patch) to study and quantify the trash, which is accumulating in larger quantities.

A category of trash that is of particular interest to researchers is our ubiquitous plastic products, which breakdown into progressively finer particles that are perpetually polluting our oceans. These particles, regardless of sizes, are nearly indestructible so researchers want to understand their impacts on ocean ecosystem cycles.

The harmful macroscopic effects are more obvious when a sea creature gets tangled in plastic netting or ingests plastic bottles and bags—not as obvious are the potentially harmful microscopic interactions, impacts and implications for ocean ecosystem cycles.

Of course we need not await our researchers before we stop polluting our oceans with harmful categories of waste.

Res:

UPDATED 02/11/2018 A Plastic Ocean - Taking Action
UPDATED 10/10/2016 SR, The effect of particle properties on the depth profile of buoyant plastics in the ocean

Some Related Agreements:

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites)
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer
Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundry Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal
Convention on Biological Diversity
Kyoto Protocol, Bonn and Follow-on Framework on Climate Change
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants