Archive for September, 2010
The ongoing devastation to the oceans and our environment caused by plastic trash in all its forms continues at an alarming rate. Our oceans are becoming little more than sewers for the world’s refuge.
Millions of tons of plastic debris and trash are now occupying 5 Gyres in the oceans. We knew about the Pacific Gyre , twice the size of Texas, only last year did we start hearing about the other four massive Gyres.
It is estimated that there could be hundreds of millions of tons of plastic rubbish floating in the world’s oceans. In Japan alone, it is calculated that 150,000 tons of plastic is washed up on its shores each year.
According to a recent article in National Geographic News, 44 percent of all seabirds eat plastic, apparently by mistake, sometimes with fatal effects. And 267 marine species are affected by plastic garbage—animals are known to swallow plastic bags, which resemble jellyfish in mid-ocean, for example—according to a 2008 study in the journal Environmental Research by oceanographer and chemist Charles Moore, of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
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Plastic hits marine creatures with a double whammy, Moore said. Along with the toxic chemicals released from the breakdown of plastic, animals also take in other chemicals that the plastic has accumulated from outside sources in the water.
“We knew ten years ago that plastic could be a million times more toxic than the seawater itself,” because plastic items tend to accumulate a surface layer of chemicals from seawater, Moore said. “They’re sponges.”
Oprah’s Earth Day shows have been a powerful means of focusing on this unnecessary man made plastic nightmare.
If you have been watching the Whale Wars on Planet Green, you already know what a treacherous existence it is for whales.
It isn’t bad enough that our oceans are treated like cesspools where areas have ten times as much plastic trash as plankton. The trash is ingested by hundreds of thousands of birds and seas creatures … a time bomb going off in their guts that silently kills. The number of whales, in particular, that are found stranded with stomachs full of trash is increasing with greater frequency.
No, we have a few nations, Japan in particular, that behave with utter disregard to savage, mind numbing killing of sharks just for their fins. Harvesting sharks as a food source is one thing … killing hundreds of thousands of sharks just for their fins and tossing the rest of the carcasses away is criminal waste.
The Japanese apparently feel that all of the oceans fish, sharks, dolphins, and whales are there to feed their voracious appetites for sea food and the rest of the world be dammed. It’s part of their culture, don’t ya know!
If you have seen The Cove you have viewed the tragedy of the Japanese insistence of mindlessly killing dolphins every year. The worse part of this story is that the rationale for the dolphin round-up is so that business corporations like Sea World can add to their supply of performing dolphins.
What is particularly hideous about the slaughter of the dolphins and whales is that these aquatic mammals are intelligent creatures that possess self awareness. They know who they are! They are cultural animals that can learn and teach one another. They mourn and feel pain.
According to the Sunday Times:
Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.
Studies into dolphin behavior have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.
The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.
Just how intelligent are whales?
It has been shown that whales, including baleen species, exhibit exceptional acumen. Studies show that they can solve problems and use tools; show grief and joy; and of course they live in complex societies as a key adaptive strategy to their vast watery environment. Cognitively advanced, whales have powers of acoustic processing, communication and social intelligence.
