Beyond Plastics, Beyond Fishing Gear, Beyond Dead Fish, all manner of things Pollute Oceans

According to one recent estimate of how much plastics lie on the ocean floor, eleven million tonnes of them make this sensitive part of the earth a resting point, one hundred times more than plastics on ocean surfaces, with many more to come by 2050, when plastic production reaches around 590 million metric tonnes.

But the issue goes beyond plastics, because each year, the world witnesses an average loss of about 1,382 containers to the ocean, with an astonishing 2,675 containers vanishing beneath the waves from November 2020 to January 2021 alone, 2021 seeing the sharpest rise in these incidents since 2013.

Also, thousands and thousands of cars stay on the ocean floor, with Felicity Ace, a cargo ship carrying luxury cars accounting for nearly 4,000 of them when it sank in February 16, 2023, and a cargo ship called  Blue Belt responsible for some of the vehicles also, when it sank with at least 170 Toyotas on board in December 1977.

Other materials than plastics, containers, and cars make up the wastes on the ocean floor, with at least three million shipwrecks lying across the ocean floor, more than 25 million pots and traps getting there yearly, while nearly two percent of all fishing gear experience the same thing.

Humans produced more than 400 million metric tonnes of plastic per year by 2021, but almost all went to waste generation, 354.3 million metric tonnes disposed of by people, with plastic waste for recycling worldwide amounting to just 15 percent.

Ship groundings and structural failures affect container ships, and experts believe they cause more than 50 percent of container ship accidents on the sea, leading to approximately 12,000 shipping containers on the ocean floor.

The total number of ships lost in 2022 reached 38, a decline from 59 in the year before for vessels over 100 gross tonnes, most of the losses happening in South China, Indonesia, the West African coast, and other areas.

Materials other than plastics reach the ocean floor the way containers, cars, and plastics do, leading to 25 million pots and traps on the seafloor each year, 740,000 kilometers of fish line and 14 billion hooks on the sea, a number nearly two percent of fish gear used.

By 2050, plastics may outweigh all fish in the ocean, and since eight to 20 million metric tonnes end up in the ocean each year, 81 percent of all marine pollution arises from this, with plastics interfering with the sea’s capacity to absorb and sequester carbon dioxide, thus accelerating climate change.

Hundreds of containers go missing at sea each year due to so many factors, and though containers provide fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions per unit of cargo, they pose environmental harm at the bottom of the ocean through contamination, since containers carry acid, alcohol, manufactured products, and other dangerous goods.

During the second world wars, at least 20,000 ships sank into the ocean, but the contents of the ships caused pollution, as about 20 million tonnes of oil were involved, exposing commercial fish to higher levels of toxic compounds, affecting the microbial community in profound ways.

In essence, plastics accelerate climate change by interfering with the ocean's capacity to absorb and sequester carbon dioxide, while missing containers and vehicles impact negatively on the wildlife at sea, along with pots and traps, fishing gear, and other materials littering the ocean floor.

The improvement of the waste system should prevent plastic wastes from entering oceans, this combined with a reduction in plastic usage on a daily basis, plus a commitment towards recycling plastic, especially as single-use plastics account for 80 percent of all marine pollution.

Since 8,500 shipwrecks leak around six billion gallons of oil on the ocean floor, actions to prevent leaking will suffice to safeguard humans and environmental health to prevent pollution, which intensifies climate change.

Improvements to the waste system and actions to prevent leaks by ships will mitigate some of the pollution on the ocean floor, a place littered with plastics, cars, second-war ships, containers, shipwrecks of past eras, fishing gear, pots, and all manner of wastes.

What are the other things you know that pollute oceans?

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