. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Nets are sorted at an Alaskan harbor for recycling. beach cleanups a cure-all — at best they are a temporary fix to a complex and persistent problem. Clearly, we need a new strategy. Monitoring must change to aggres- sively track sources and identify trends. It should tell us whether our pollution- control policies — education and regu- lations — are working. Are ships com- plying with MARPOL Annex V, the international pact that prohibits over- board dumping of plastics and regulates at-sea disposal of oth
. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. Nets are sorted at an Alaskan harbor for recycling. beach cleanups a cure-all — at best they are a temporary fix to a complex and persistent problem. Clearly, we need a new strategy. Monitoring must change to aggres- sively track sources and identify trends. It should tell us whether our pollution- control policies — education and regu- lations — are working. Are ships com- plying with MARPOL Annex V, the international pact that prohibits over- board dumping of plastics and regulates at-sea disposal of other garbage? Are land-based sources of debris changing? In 1988, the United States ratified MARPOL Annex V. Since then, how- ever, surveys and studies have been unable to measure the force of this leg- islation on shores. No consistent decline in the abundance of trash has been observed; nor have any nation- wide trends emerged for plastic debris. Likewise, there is little data on land-based sources. Studies have found, however, that plastics account for most debris (48 to 99 percent) on beaches and har- bors. Marine litter was examined from 1989 to 1993 by the Center for Marine Conservation annual cleanups, National Park Service quarterly beach surveys at eight parks, a National Marine Fisheries Marine debris darkens all of the world's oceans, but the problem hardly starts there. Close to 80 percent is washed, blown or dumped from shore. In the entire marine debris debate, no other point is so straightforward. Service debris study in Alaska and Environmental Protection Agency sur- veys of 10 harbors. In most locations, these studies found that plastics were dominated by packaging (bottles, bags and lids) or miscellaneous debris (fragments and pellets). Alaska was the exception with derelict fishing gear (floats, trawl web, rope) appearing as 53 percent of the litter. Beaches on the Gulf of Mexico were most trashed, followed by those on the West and East coa
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookcollectionunclibra, booksubjectoceanography
