This sitereferences direct ingestion of waste plastic matter, entanglement in mesh netting (a known component of the Pacific Gyre trash heap) as well as prey depletion as significant causes of whale and dolphin population depletion:
From the “Response” section:
Obviously Australia considers dumped plastic trash to be a problem.
How about this site? The tone is a little offputting, but it’s targeted toward kids:
Okay, there you go. Several other countries who recognize plastic litter as a danger to cetacean as well as other marine animal species and who are enacting taxes on plastic bags in order to reduce the volume of plastic litter that goes into the ocean.
Check out the picture of the large volume of plastic litter found in the dead albatross–figure any animal that eats that bird might also be in danger?
Okay, I’ve posted some cites I found with about ten minutes of Google-fu–can you in return show me any reputable research that contraindicates the danger of plastic litter in the oceans?
Hey, trollboy–FOAD. It’s too bad you can’t read and/or extrapolate and/or comprehend sentences but it’s not my responsibility to educate you, either. Cunt off, you little toad.
Why exactly are we talking about whales and dolphins? The original point said nothing about cetaceans specifically. And the effects of plastic pollution on ocean trophic levels are pretty well documented. See Google Scholar for all the documentation you could ever possibly want to wade through.
I picked out dolphins and whales because they are large creatures, and in my layman’s opinion, a massive drop in their numbers in the North Pacific would likely be noticed.
If there is a “huge problem” with fish being poisoned by eating plastic over zooplankton, it ought to have a big effect on the dolphins that feed on the fish. (At least according to the “catastrophe” video that was linked earlier.) A similar argument would apply to whales – either direct poisoning by consuming plastic, or indirect effects caused by an absence of fish or the presence of poisonous fish).
Damn it, here I am all ready to post, “Oh my. I’d have thought I would have picked it up on the Smell-O-Scope,” only to find I’d been reference-scooped. Oh well - perhaps you’d be interested in a death clock?
Yeah, my fault–I bought Troll Food in bulk and it’s the only way to get rid of it. Nothing else will eat it and it’s taking up space in my garage. Silly me–I keep thinking ignorance is mutable, without factoring in the “willful” part!
Oh? What about developmental effects? Genetic effects? Hormonal effects? Lots of plastics degrade into hormonally active chemicals which may not show their effects by direct poisoning, but which nevertheless have an impact on reproduction and survivability. These too are well documented. Now whether any specific effects have been characterized in this particular island of pollution, I don’t know. But it’s perfectly reasonable to CLEAN THE SHIT UP, based on what we already know about what plastic pollution does in an aquatic environment.
Jesus. This isn’t that difficult. You really are trolling, aren’t you?
Here’s another factor - whales and dolphins might not be as heavily affected because they tend to stick to coastlines. I don’t think it’s even a point worthy of discussion as to whether that much garbage is affecting the species that are trying to live there.
How do you clean it up? Make cruise ships come out of every cruise with more garbage than they made.
Well, getting the big bits out with nets is a start, but what’s really scary are the teensy particles that used be part of a larger chunk–I can’t for the life of me figure out how to seine those out of the water. Huge floating platforms with micron filtration pumps?
At least if we get the larger pieces out there’ll be fewer misshapen turtles and dead birds crammed as full of tampon applicators as a Thanksgiving turkey is of the more conventional sort of stuffing. There’ll also be less breakdown into the smaller bits–but when you consider that plastic will keep breaking down to the molecular level… Yeesh, what a mess!
Maybe we can pay those unemployed Japanese whalers a bounty to pick up the trash!
Interesting that you expect people to answer your question as if it were a logical one.
It seems to me that you’re the one who needs to demonstrate that the question itself, and the assumption underlying it (that fish deaths caused by garbage would lead to loss of whale and dolphin population), are valid. You have yet to do so.
And why should we have to wait for whales and dolphins to decline before doing something about it? Wouldn’t it be better to take care of it before that happens?
Since you're being generous,I wannabe to.I'll take the rowboat out there this weekend,bail that stuff up and we can put it in your trash collection,or your back yard if ,oh say, your math is a bit off.That should get these whiners to STFU.
I’m just a layman, but it seems to me that if the dolphins’ food source was being poisoned and killed in “huge” numbers on a large scale, it ought to have a significant impact on the dolphin population. That’s certainly what was implied in the scare video posted earlier. Or do you think that the video is misleading?
