A sea of changes: Can we save our oceans?

2020 has already been a remarkable year for various reasons. A global pandemic has shown us how our planet looks like if we slow down, how nature can heal and reclaim its territory. The potential climate impact of the coronavirus-related shutdown has been one of the leading topics as we have seen wild animals wander through deserted cities, maps showing that air pollution levels have plummeted across the world and plunging crude oil prices. These would perhaps be the sort of outcomes seen if environmental policies had been put in place following the first Earth Day in 1970. A few months ago, environmentalists could only dream of such a scenario to celebrate its 50th anniversary and the forthcoming World Environment Day. 

Covid-19 has had an immediate impact on our home and work environments, but when it comes to the environment, the picture is far less clear. The pandemic also resulted in a tremendous increase in the amount of medical and hazardous waste generated, containing materials that do not recycle and are not biodegradable. In Wuhan, where the novel coronavirus first emerged, officials had to construct a new medical waste plant as the daily output of medical waste reached 240 metric tons, about the weight of an adult blue whale. The rise in disposable face masks and gloves being used to prevent the spread of the virus is adding to the already existing problem of plastic pollution threatening the oceans and marine life. Another worrying fact is that quarantine gives freedom and opportunity for illegal fishing which means endangered species are being fished under the radar. The second global United Nations Ocean Conference – co-hosted by the Governments of Kenya and Portugal – would be a crucial event for the health and safety of life under water and on land and would also tackle the aforementioned problems, but in light of the current situation the conference has been postponed as well.

Used medical masks and gloves add to an already significant problem: At least 8 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year. This is on top of the estimated 150 million metric tons that already circulate in our marine environments, a great amount of which has already formed a new “dynamic” continent in the Pacific Ocean, called The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (twice the size of Texas). The accumulation of floating plastic accounts for less than 1% of the 10 million tons of plastic that enter the world’s oceans each year, while the missing 99% is thought to pile up in the deep ocean, but until now it has not been clear where exactly it has ended up. As plastic swirls around in the water for years, much of it breaks down into tiny pieces – called microplastics – and the level of these plastics on the seafloor is at its highest ever level, with up to 1.9 million pieces covering just one square meter. In fact, a plastic bag was found at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the ocean, extending 10,994 meters down into the Pacific Ocean. At least 600 different wildlife species are threatened by this type of pollution, as many fish species consume these microplastics, confusing it for real food. Plastic has also been found in more than 60 percent of all seabirds and in 100 percent of sea turtle species. This is due to the fact that plastic bags resemble jellyfish, which is a common food for sea turtles, while some seabirds eat plastic because it releases a chemical that makes it smell like natural food. 

Another growing problem is the 600,000 to 800,000 metric tonnes of fishing gear that is abandoned or lost at sea each year, including discarded fishing nets that ensnare fish and mammals. Ghost gear is estimated to make up 10% of ocean plastic pollution but forms the majority of large plastic littering the waters. One study found that as much as 70% of large plastics (more than 20 centimeters) found floating on the surface of the ocean were fishing related. According to a report by Greenpeace, fishing gear makes up 86% of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The ocean treaty is one of three recommendations Greenpeace issued to address this problem: the Global Ocean Treaty, which is supposed to be agreed upon by 2020, would allow governments to create ocean sanctuaries in at least 30% of international waters by 2030.

There is also a human health risk from plastic entering the food chain with nearly a billion people around the world consuming seafood as their primary source of protein. Sadly, plastic production and consumption are predicted to double over the next 10 years and triple by 2050, even though yearly economic costs due to marine plastic pollution are estimated to be between 6-19 billion USD (stemming from the plastic’s impact on tourism, fisheries and aquaculture). As 91% of plastic is not recycled, it is predicted that by 2050 there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. One way to approach the challenge is by transitioning to a circular economy, where the crucial concept is the designing out of waste. The key to the success of the circular economy approach is to focus on the design stage, rather than trying to deal with waste at the end of the product’s life. In the case of plastic, the idea is to change practices and encourage innovation so that we use less plastic: design plastic products so that they can be reused, develop technologies to allow more effective and efficient reprocessing of used plastic and devise and use safer alternatives to traditional plastics. Bioplastic proponents are also believed to be crucial in making plastic part of a circular economy, ingredients such as olive pits (Biolive), sunflower hulls (Golden Compound), fish waste and algae (MarinaTex, Algotek) and mushrooms (MycoWorks) could make bioplastics competitive with traditional plastics. 

Marine pollution encompasses other types of pollution besides plastic, that also disrupt the marine ecosystem – including chemical, light, and noise pollution – but we can conclude that the better we manage nature, the better we manage human health and our future too.

The ocean covers 71% of the Earth’s surface, is the planet's largest biosphere, and home to up to 80% of all life in the world. It generates 50% of the oxygen we need, absorbs 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions and captures 90% of the additional heat generated from those emissions. It is not just “the lungs of the planet” but also its largest carbon sink that plays a vital role against the impacts of climate change. In addition, ocean freight has become the world's most important import and export trade mode of transport. To sum up, it can be said that the ocean has become the most important part of people's life around the world. Although a vast majority of the ocean remains unmapped, unobserved and unexplored, there are many reasons why we need to manage its sustainability – as set out in the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Life Below Water.

Many national laws, as well as international agreements prohibit the dumping of harmful materials into the ocean, although enforcing these regulations remains a challenge. Moreover, around 64% of oceans lie outside national jurisdiction, according to the UN, which makes it more difficult to remove those countless pollutants that already persist in these waters. These chemical pollutants often cannot be broken down for long periods of time, or they increase in concentration as they move up the food chain. Because plastic is thought to take hundreds of years to break down, it poses a threat to the marine environment (and to us) for centuries. 

Shipping & spilling

Shipping is the backbone of the global economy and roughly 90% of trade is seaborne, but it is also one of the world’s most polluting industries, as the environmental impact of shipping includes air pollution, water pollution, acoustic and oil pollution. More than 90,000 ships cross the oceans yearly, of which about 6,000 are large container ships, burning nearly 2 billion barrels of the heaviest fuel oil and carrying oil and gas, chemicals, metals and other goods. The maritime sector has functioned for decades as a vast waste disposal system for the oil industry. As refineries became more sophisticated, producing higher quality petrol for cars, for example, the worst bits of the barrel ended up in the engines of ships. While being toxic to marine life, the components in crude oil are very difficult to clean up, and last for years in the sediment and marine environment. Marine species constantly exposed to these can experience developmental problems, several diseases and abnormal reproductive cycles. Shipping’s international nature makes it tricky to control, as measures such as fuel regulations and emissions standards have long implementation periods and are slow to achieve greenhouse gas reductions and environmental goals. Furthermore, standards vary inside and outside the so-called “emissions control areas” established by the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency focused on shipping.

Most commonly associated with ship pollution are oil spills. While less frequent than the pollution that occurs from daily operations, oil spills have devastating effects. As researchers learned during and after the oil spill accidents, such as the Deepwater Horizon explosion, not all oil floats: instead, it finds its way to the seafloor as well. The oil pollution in the fish are still visible even though the accident happened in 2010 and the effects of the Deepwater Horizon spill could linger even longer into the future. The researchers also discovered, by studying sites of previous oil spills, that oil can remain in seafloor sediment four decades later.

Fishing for the future

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) projects that by 2030, fish farming, one of the fastest growing methods of producing food in the world, will be responsible for almost two-thirds of the fish we eat. Globally, demand for seafood is rising to such an extent that the sector has been expanding by an average of nearly 6 percent annually, outpacing all other food segments. However, the market’s expansion may not be sustainable. Overfishing has depleted stocks around the world, often as a result of bycatches, where unwanted sea life is caught by accident (about 40% of fish catch worldwide is unintentionally caught). Imagine a net scooping up all animals on land like tigers, elephants and giraffes and then selecting which ones you want, the rest die. This is what is happening in our oceans, but it seems less shocking as we don't witness it directly.

Because salmon and other popular carnivorous fish need omega-3s to grow, 30-50% of the fish feed traditionally used for these species consists of fishmeal (ground fish) and fish oil. Over 50% of the world’s fish oil is used in feed for farmed salmon and more than a third of the global fish harvest still goes toward making fish meal and fish oil. This is one reason that fish farming has a reputation as being unsustainable. As a result, forage fish are being overfished, and some populations have crashed, which has implications for the entire food web since larger fish depend on them for food. Land-based closed systems can minimize the amount of waste expelled to the environment and limit the spread of disease, but pumping the water through them requires a great deal of energy and the wastewater must still be disposed of properly.

Aquaculture has now overtaken wild fishing as the world’s main source of seafood. Partly, this is the result of a growing global population, which has created more mouths to feed. Even though fisheries are already overexploited, fish farming will be critical to supplying the protein the world needs. The industry needs to consider its environmental impact very carefully, as it is both a significant contributor to climate change and will be profoundly impacted by it. For example farmed marine fish production in south-east Asia, one of the largest aquaculture regions, is expected to drop 30% by 2050 due to rising sea temperatures and acidification of oceans.

Luckily, there are a number of non-profit marine conservation organisations across the world working to save our oceans, on behalf of all of us. These organisations, through different campaigns and other activities, are involved in protecting the ocean from all such harms and also try to restore a vibrant marine life. 

Sea Shepherd (www.seashepherdglobal.org/)

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a marine conservation organization with direct action tactics to save the oceans. They aim to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species. Founded by Paul Watson 1n 1978, the organization carries out operations that involve direct tactics including scuttling and disabling whaling vessels. Known as the world's largest private navy and active in over 40 countries.

Oceana (www.oceana.org)

Oceana was established by a group of leading foundations after a 1999 study discovered that less than 0.5 percent of all resources spent by environmental nonprofit groups in the United States went to ocean advocacy. Oceana works to protect sea life affected by industrial fishing by using targeted campaigns based on scientific research, combined with media and public pressure. 

Ocean Conservancy (www.oceanconservancy.org)

Ocean Conservancy is another leading advocacy group working for the protection of special marine habitats, the restoration of sustainable fisheries and for reducing the human impact on ocean ecosystems. In order to save our oceans, the group focuses on educating the public and also advocating for policy changes for maintaining vibrant ocean wildlife.

Startups that are making a difference

rePurpose (https://repurpose.global/)

As the world's first Plastic Credit Platform, they help individuals and companies take effortless but impactful climate action by using an algorithm to help people calculate their plastic footprint and telling them how much plastic they use. It also provides a roadmap to help them reduce the usage. Through technology, rePurpose is creating a global movement of conscious consumers, who actively reduce plastic consumption, and offset their plastic consumption through partner organizations in India.

The Seabin project (https://seabinproject.com/) 

As the name suggests, Seabin is a water garbage bin, that can pull garbage inside it from a distance of up to 10 meters and collect up to 1.5 kg in marinas, docks and ports. To illustrate this more vividly: a Seabin can collect up to 90.000 plastic bags, 37.500 coffee cups or 16.500 PET bottles per year.

BioCellection (www.biocellection.com) 

BioCellection is a technology company focused on developing new paths to recycling the “unrecyclable plastics”. That is, all the plastics that can’t be easily washed and reconstructed at typical recycling plants. What makes them unique is their focus on deconstructing difficult plastics or plastics easily contaminated in their use to a more base foundation where they can be used for a variety of other purposes from plastic bags to outdoor jackets.

Ocean Hugger Foods (https://oceanhuggerfoods.com/)

There are many startups that strive to help preserve the ocean’s natural resources by providing seafood alternatives. Ocean Hugger Foods is among these, bringing sustainable, delicious seafood to the world’s table, without having to farm or harvest live fish from our oceans. The founders decided to create a plant-based alternative that would offer people the experience of eating their seafood favorites, without adding pressure on the oceans.

Coral Vita (https://www.coralvita.co/)

Coral Vita creates high-tech coral farms to grow them at 50 times normal rates and to restore reefs in the most effective way possible, while boosting their resiliency against the warming and acidifying oceans that threaten their survival and eventually transplanting them into degraded sites.

Plastic Fischer (https://plasticfischer.com/)

Plastic Fischer focuses on collecting plastic before it enters the ocean: they develop cost-efficient and effective plastic waste collection solutions for rivers in developing countries, such as Indonesia. With 50,000 km of coastline and a lack of widespread public awareness of waste management across the archipelago, much of Indonesia’s trash could end up in the ocean.

How can I make a difference?

Volunteer

You can volunteer from your own home! Everybody can help in some way, if you have a trade or if you simply can share posts on social media, donate and/or make fundraisers. Every little bit helps!

https://oceana.org/take-action

https://oceanconservancy.org/action-center/

https://www.take3.org/take-action/

You can also join in on votes to ban illegal activities like this for example, to stop shark finning: https://www.seashepherdglobal.org/latest-news/citizens-initiative-ban-finning-europe/

Go vegetarian/vegan

Or at least try and eat less meat and fish if possible, this would already make a huge impact. Pollution of our waterways is caused by animal waste, antibiotics and hormones entering the water cycle alongside chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers, and the pesticides used to spray feed crops. Pigs are eating more fish than sharks, chickens are eating more fish than puffins, and cats are eating more fish than seals because we use fish for animal feed (one-third of fish caught in the world's oceans is ground up for animal feed). By choosing a vegetarian diet, we can dramatically reduce the amount of land, water, and oil resources that animal products consume and the amount of pollution they otherwise might cause. 

Be bold, Be brave, Be Amazing!

Anybody can help, no government is going to make a difference without the power of cooperation. The movement of passion will move mountains and every individual can make a positive impact!

If you know any innovations or organisations that could have in this article, please let us know!

Co-written by Franciska Iglódi & Christopher Storey