Dead and beached Gray Whale revealed to have tons of plastic trash inside its stomach
22 replies, posted
[URL]http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2011657607_graywhale21m.html[/URL]
[quote]Sweatpants. A golf ball. Surgical gloves. Small towels. Bits of plastic. And more than 20 plastic bags.A gray whale's last meal in Puget Sound included plenty of trash, and it was fresh enough to indicate the animal took the "eat local" mantra enthusiastically to heart before coming ashore at Arroyo Beach, and later dying about a mile south of the Fauntleroy ferry dock.[/quote]
poor gray whale
poor ocean
gonna be poor us in the future :(
I'd love to know the journey behind each of these items, and how they ended up in this mammals belly.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;42795706]I'd love to know the journey behind each of these items, and how they ended up in this mammals belly.[/QUOTE]
There are plenty of documentaries about the garbage in the Ocean.
I wonder if sea animals will evolve to eat these things normally.
[QUOTE=Banhfunbags;42795742]I wonder if sea animals will evolve to eat these things normally.[/QUOTE]
Not likely. Most we'll probably see would be microscopic critters that can feed off the degraded plastic pieces.
[editline]8th November 2013[/editline]
But even that would probably be a stretch. Things just aren't suppose to eat plastic.
[QUOTE=Banhfunbags;42795742]I wonder if sea animals will evolve to eat these things normally.[/QUOTE]
10 bucks says that the ocean will soon be the cradle of evolution for green slime :v:
[QUOTE=The golden;42795722]We carelessly dump all of our shit into the ocean and the marine wildlife unknowingly swims by and ingests it. I don't think there is much more to it than than.
We have polluted the ocean so much that it is pretty much a total right-off at this point. It has surpassed FUBAR at this point.[/QUOTE]
solution, detonate a 10 megaton nuclear device on top of the center of the mid pacific gyre, it vaporises all the trahpsh and the pacific is saved!
[QUOTE=OvB;42795751]Not likely. Most we'll probably see would be microscopic critters that can feed off the degraded plastic pieces.
[editline]8th November 2013[/editline]
But even that would probably be a stretch. Things just aren't suppose to eat plastic.[/QUOTE]
Tell that to my dog
[QUOTE=Sableye;42795783]solution, detonate a 10 megaton nuclear device on top of the center of the mid pacific gyre, it vaporises all the trahpsh and the pacific is saved![/QUOTE]
And then boiled and irradiated.
The really sad part isn't that we just threw out all this stuff, but that it ended up in the ocean despite having reasonable methods to dispose of or recycle it, but we don't because we're lazy
Yeah we're fucked
The obvious course of action would be to start some sort of training program teaching whales not to eat trash
[editline]8th November 2013[/editline]
or recycle, whatever's easier
you do realise that shit like the gyre isn't from deliberate dumping for disposal, its that a few asswipes think its perfectly fine to chuck their trash into rivers and oceans, occasionally some stuff just gets blown away or lost at sea or in the case of Japan, its been sucked out to sea by the tsunami. in any case you would think with all that feedstock someone would have figured out a way to harvest that trash. the worst part about it is when plastic does break down it releases plastic microbeeds which float in the water and are completely more toxic than the trash
why the fuck do people throw garbage in ocean like it will magically dissapear wtf
Just use it as fuel dammit you gonna save money
[QUOTE=Sableye;42795874]you do realise that shit like the gyre isn't from deliberate dumping for disposal, its that a few asswipes think its perfectly fine to chuck their trash into rivers and oceans, occasionally some stuff just gets blown away or lost at sea or in the case of Japan, its been sucked out to sea by the tsunami. in any case you would think with all that feedstock someone would have figured out a way to harvest that trash. the worst part about it is when plastic does break down it releases plastic microbeeds which float in the water and are completely more toxic than the trash[/QUOTE]
A lot of it is just litter. Many storm drains in coastal cities drain to the ocean. People throw trash outside, stuff blows away from landfills, trucks, etc, etc. Eventually it makes its way to the drains or rivers and washes out to sea.
[img]http://i.imgur.com/HrRhD1k.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/mm1MKgl.jpg[/img]
Everything washes downhill. If you live near a river, stray garbage will eventually find its way there.
The nightmare we're causing for our environment is ridiculous, and the worst part is that a lot of those responsible are just sitting around going 'Well, I'm only one person, I'm not going to make a difference'. Apart from the people who can make a significant individual difference, who tend to say it isn't happening at all.
it's dumb as fuck that we make the things we hold on for like, 10 seconds, out of [I]plastic.[/I]
who even came up with that
[QUOTE=milkandcooki;42796256]it's dumb as fuck that we make the things we hold on for like, 10 seconds, out of [I]plastic.[/I]
who even came up with that[/QUOTE]
"Hey Ideas Guy Phil, we are moving to an easily disposable, quick to empy form of packaging, should we use...maybe styrofoam? Degradable paper pulp?"
"Nah, how about something made from a totally cheap commodity like OIL that last for 10 quadrillion years once you toss it"
Fucking brilliant.
[QUOTE=milkandcooki;42796256]it's dumb as fuck that we make the things we hold on for like, 10 seconds, out of [I]plastic.[/I]
who even came up with that[/QUOTE]
Somebody who realized its potential. Somebody who said to themselves, [i]"Hey! Look at this cheap and versatile material! I could use it to produce tons of shit for consumers and make a boatload of money in the process!"[/i]
Somebody who didn't give a fuck about proper end-of-life management for it, either.
I'm fine with using plastics in stuff like car parts, refrigerators and other household appliances, electronic devices, and all that shit. But when you feel the need to make every fucking single container in existence out of it, whether we're talking jugs or cartons to hold milk and juice and tea and shit in or bottles to hold oil and antifreeze (etc.), that's when there's clearly going to be serious issues with pollution. Someone somewhere along the line with some sense of reasonableness and decency about them and some amount of authority to their name should have realized how this was a disaster waiting to happen.
[QUOTE=milkandcooki;42796256]it's dumb as fuck that we make the things we hold on for like, 10 seconds, out of [I]plastic.[/I]
who even came up with that[/QUOTE]
I'm guessing that like with a lot of things that are bad in the long run, we didn't realize it would be bad back when we invented it.
Now we've grown too comfortable with it to eagerly replace our convenient but destructive habit for an inconvenient but beneficial one.
Along with many 21st Century consumer technologies, it is clearly created with price and mass production in mind which I understand, but with no mind for the next 20-30 years after the fact unfortunately. Poor whale. Our planets oceans are getting clogged and our ground contaminated, our air poisoned, all because Humans, the supposedly most clearly adaptable beings here, are actually taking too long to adapt from the practices that are killing us. We have said for decades how much we are hurting the planet, but we haven't done much about very quickly on a large scale, our propensity for adaptation seems to have become less important to us.
[QUOTE=LunchboxOfDoom;42796279]I'm fine with using plastics in stuff like car parts, refrigerators and other household appliances, electronic devices, and all that shit. But when you feel the need to make every fucking single container in existence out of it, whether we're talking jugs or cartons to hold milk and juice and tea and shit in or bottles to hold oil and antifreeze (etc.), that's when there's clearly going to be serious issues with pollution. Someone somewhere along the line with some sense of reasonableness and decency about them and some amount of authority to their name should have realized how this was a disaster waiting to happen.[/QUOTE]
In my opinion it comes down to three major things.
First, I don't mind things like antifreeze and such substances being in plastic containers, I really can't think of another option, seeing as it's not suitable to have toxic things in easily biodegradable materials. It's fine, as long as we recycle it. I have no love for a plastic bottle if it's just lying on the ground, or floating in our oceans.
Second, might be the most difficult. Innovation, new materials that are friendlier to the environment, and getting the large corporations to use them. I know, mass production, money, etc. It just sucks that they really do want to squeeze as much money as possible out of something, instead of not making as a big profit (still huge I'd guess), but sparing the environment a little bit too.
Third, the consumer. Also difficult, because we like our money. I do actually buy things like ecological bananas and locally produced milk and other dairy products, but still a lot of the packaging for other things is plastic and it's not ecological. Meat is usually 100-250 kronor (15-38 dollars) more expensive if it's ecological, and in the long run that's quite a lot of money if you're a student or don't have a lot of money.
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