Marine Debris
By Anissa Lawrence, Tierra Mar
We have been absolutely appalled at the amount of rubbish or marine debris as it is known that has been washed up on the sand cays we have visited so far. We are thousands of kilometers away from anywhere and yet the things we use in our everyday lives are here! Not only does it look so out of place against the pristine natural environment, but it is impacting on the birds that use these harsh sand cay environments for nesting and the turtles that lay their eggs.
Today we found birds nesting in amongst the rubbish and in some cases on top of it! We found a number of eggs and newly hatched chicks, sitting in amongst the many plastic water bottles, deodorant bottles, oil containers, glass bottles, toothbrushes, combs, thongs, crates, cigarette lighters, buoys, light bulbs, rope, large industrial GPS units, plastic bags, and lots of small broken pieces. Where this debris was from was what was even more astounding….. the Phillipines, Japan, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Australia, and New Zealand.
Really when you see the state of the islands, particularly Lorna Cay, it really brings home the impact we, living back in the cities with our fossil fuel existence, thousands of kilometers away from here, are having without even knowing it. What is scary is that the rubbish we have found on these sand cays is just the tip of the iceberg. There are millions and millions of pieces of debris floating around in the ocean. The impact this is having on our precious marine wildlife is unquantified, but we know from studies being undertaken that many marine animals like turtles, sea snakes, seals and seabirds are getting entangled in it or ingesting these plastics and dying every year. What is even more appalling is that we continue to live in ignorance of this issue, unaware that everyday our actions are potentially impacting thousands of marine animals across our blue planet. The challenge is how we reduce this impact when our lives are so ruled by fossil fuel produced plastics!
Tawny Nurse Sharks
Tomorrow we’re heading onto Lorna Cay to swim with Tawny Nurse Sharks. These six foot long bottom feeders dwell in the shallows around the reef. Twenty-seven were seen together this morning. If we’re successful, we’ll report later!
Plastic has to be the most evil of "byproducts" man has ever created
Is it just my computer or does your resource look a lot different in IE6? I have just installed google chrome and all the webpages admire youtube and google look the same but your site looks a little different. It looks admire the font is a bit smaller and its different type of font. Maybe its just my computer because I’ve asked a friend of mine if your blog looks different to him on different browsers and he said no.
Christopher. IE6 would be the problem. Microsoft have just scrapped it and much to my relief, I no longer have to try to style to suit it. Sorry! An update to any of the modern browsers should see most (if not all) of the small differences disappear. Thanks for the heads up though…I’ll check some other browsers when I get a moment.
Christopher. IE6 would be the problem. Microsoft have just scrapped it and much to my relief, I no longer have to try to style to suit it. Sorry! An update to any of the modern browsers should see most (if not all) of the small differences disappear. Thanks for the heads up though…I’ll check some other browsers when I get a moment.