Marine Debris Quotes

Later studies estimated that at least 6.4 Mt of plastic litter enters the oceans every year; that some 8 million pieces are discarded every day; that the floating plastic debris averages more than 13 000 pieces per km2 of ocean surface; and that some 60% of all marine litter stems from shoreline activities

As the floodwaters advanced during the global Flood, humans would have fled to higher ground, swam, or held on to floating debris for as long as possible. Also, human corpses tend to bloat and therefore float on the water’s surface. Hence, it makes sense that very few, if any, humans would be buried by sediment. Instead, they would have rotted and decayed without fossilization. It is expected that marine creatures and plants were the first things buried and fossilized, since they are at a lower elevation and couldn’t escape the sediment and water. When we look at the fossil record, statistically we find: 95% of all fossils were marine organisms. 95% of the remaining 5% were algae, plants/trees. 95% of the remaining 0.25% were invertebrates, including insects. The remaining 0.0125% were vertebrates, mostly fish.

Since there was a lot of debris on the road – a thick layer of dusty dirt, pebbles, bits of dry vegetation – the techs couldn’t see any sign of an IED. They decided to use propelled water from special bottles to clear the debris and see if there was anything obvious underneath. Almost as soon as the water hit the ground, there was a huge blast. Willingham could feel it rumble inside his chest. The explosion left a crater in the middle of the road, twelve feet across by five feet deep. If Willingham had let Lucca sit at what proved to be a highly unstable IED, it could have been over for her, maybe for him, too. If she had been a typical leashed bomb dog, or if Lucca weren’t so good at her job, that could have been the end of the road for at least the two of them.

The marine plastic debris crisis has been largely addressed thanks to a groundswell of community concern that galvanized governments and industry to take appropriate measures. Governments, particularly in poorer nations, have funded improved waste collection systems that stem the loss of plastics from the land to the oceans via rivers. The demand for plastics has been greatly reduced because of global bans on single use plastic bags and reduced use of plastic in packaging. Furthermore, efficient systems are in place to collect and recycle plastic into new products thus greatly reducing the amount of virgin plastic being manufactured. After some initial teething problems effective systems to remove plastic debris from the oceanic gyres are in operation and the amount of plastic in the gyres has been reduced by three-quarters, reducing harm to marine organisms and reducing the source of much of the microplastics in the oceans. Shorelines and seascapes around the world are now much cleaner and there are much reduced levels of microplastics in seafood.