[Animal People]
Mainly fishery-related plastic waste from Japan, China, South Korea, etc.
Garbage from rivers in developing countries is insignificant… “Most of it sinks to the coast”
“Major fishing countries must work” to clean up a garbage area 16 times the size of South Korea
Fishing gear debris from the region’s major fishing nations has emerged as the bulk of the North Pacific’s vast marine debris patch.Japan accounts for the largest proportion of identifiable origins. (Provided by Ocean Cleanup)
Japan, China, and South Korea, which have engaged in large-scale fishing activities, are the main sources of plastic waste drifting in the “Great Pacific Garbage Belt,” rather than the Philippines and India, which discharge large amounts of plastic waste from rivers. turned out to be a country
The Great Pacific Garbage Field is a sea of garbage that stretches 16 times the size of South Korea in the ocean between Hawaii and North America. 79,000 tonnes of plastic waste and other waste gathers along the swirling ocean currents like a loose soup rather than in the form of an island.
The Great Pacific Garbage Field is located between Hawaii and the North American continent, where the survey was conducted, and on the western side. (Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Wikimedia Commons)
In 2019, the Dutch non-profit organization Ocean Cleanup, which develops technology to collect plastic waste from the ocean, collected 6,000 pieces of plastic waste larger than 5 centimeters in size from the Great Pacific Garbage Area and worked to trace its origin. is. The clues included language written on the trash, company names, trademarks, logos, addresses and phone numbers.
Ocean cleanup activist Laurent Lebreton and others wrote in a paper published in the scientific journal Scientific Report on the 5th, “Most of the plastic waste that flows into the ocean is thought to come from rivers in developing countries. However, most of the plastic waste in the North Pacific return zone originates from five industrialized fishing nations.”
2019, Ocean Cleanup collects large garbage in the Great Pacific Garbage Area // Hankyoreh Shimbun
Japan accounts for 34% of the countries of origin, and China accounts for 32%. This was followed by South and North Korea at 10%, followed by the United States at 7%, Taiwan at 6%, and Canada at 5%. South Korea and North Korea are not classified, but are grouped together under the Korean Peninsula.
Dr. Matthias Egger, an oceanographer from the organization who participated in the study, said, “The results of this study make clear that the ocean’s giant debris areas cannot be cleaned up by simply preventing the inflow of them through rivers.” Fisheries and aquaculture must play an important role in eliminating plastic,” the group said on its website.
Japan, China, South Korea, the United States, and Taiwan, identified as the main source countries of plastic waste, are also the countries with the most active industrial-scale fishing activities in the world. “These countries also account for about the same weight in net and rope emissions, the main sources of fishing gear waste,” the researchers said in their paper. made it
So far, the major sources of marine plastic waste have been coastal cities and rivers in developing countries, with the Philippines (36%), India (13%), Malaysia and China (7% each) being the major sources globally. Known as an emitting country.
So why is it that these countries have such a small weight in the Pacific Garbage Zone, while fishing gear garbage occupies a large weight instead? Dr. Egger said, “Most of the river-derived plastic waste drifts along the coast and sinks to the coast or seabed.” ~10 times higher,” he said.
Plastic waste in developing countries has been pointed out as the cause of sea pollution, but it has become clear that the fishing activities of industrialized countries account for a far greater proportion of ocean waste. (Provided by Ocean Cleanup) // The Hankyoreh company
Researchers couldn’t tell what kind of objects a third of the bulky debris they collected in the Pacific came from, but the rest was mostly fishing-related plastic trash such as buoys, boxes, buckets and baskets. made it The most identifiable waste was waste from oyster farms.
The oldest piece of large plastic waste collected this time was a buoy manufactured in 1966. “Most of this trash is decades old and will continue to exist for a long time, breaking down into microplastics and harming the environment,” Dr. Egger said.
Cited paper: Scientific Reports, DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-16529-0
By Cho Hong-seop, staff reporter (contact japan@hani.co.kr)
Translated CM