Plastic on the Beach in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve

Plastic on the beach in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve
The Idea Tree Consulting
October 19, 2014

While we were on holiday in Tofino earlier this summer, we learned a lot about plastics in the ocean, and between bits of surfing and reading, we did some beach clean up, removing litter and plastic bits from beaches like this: P1080983 Stephanie was occupied with what should be considered an environmental classic, Captain Charles Moore’s Plastic Ocean (with Cassandra Phillips). The book P1090160details his journeys between Hawaii and California, and missions to document the floating plastic he noticed while sailing in that stretch of the Pacific. This work brought the issue of plastic microdebris to the attention of the public and the environmental movement. What I enjoyed the most about the book was that it didn’t just lay out facts but told a story, which is why I couldn’t put it down. Check out  http://www.algalita.org/ to learn more about the work of Algalita, the non-profit Captain Charles Moore founded to address the issue of oceanic plastics.  Meanwhile, Teale dug into the beach and made himself a little desk to complete some reading on krill in the Antarctic. With every visit to the different beaches in the area we collected a bag of garbage, mostly small plastic debris like this: P1080926 Sometimes there was a bit of beach garbage too, though not much. It may not seem like much, but preventing any of this junk from getting into or back into the ocean makes us feel a little better and doesn’t take much effort on our part. P1080929 Though if you look up at the back of the beach around the driftwood, it’s a different story. It’s not difficult to find little pieces of plastic of all kinds: P1080987 Including these little fellas. They are known as “nurdles,” pre-production plastic pellets. They’re melted down and turned into the plastic products we use all the time. P1080984 They didn’t even become something we used once and then threw away, they just spilled somewhere off a container ship or a factory, made their way into a waterway and into the ocean and onto this beach, just like beaches all around the world (one of the many things you’ll learn if you read Plastic Ocean). You can see a number of nurdles in this photo below: P1080990 In a place that has this kind of natural beauty: P1080999 It seems so wrong that when you look closely you actually find this kind of tiny plastic polluting the beach, knowing that there is so much more out there in the ocean that will eventually wash up too. So you collect a handful: P1080988 And then another: P1080991 And another: P1080995 And another: P1080996 It took us just a few minutes to find plenty of tiny bits of plastic. A note, you will want to wash your hands right afterwards as we did, or wear gloves of some kind, as not only are you handling plastic, you’re handing plastic that seems to “adsorb” chemicals out of the ocean, meaning it becomes even more toxic during it’s time in the ocean and you’ll want to be careful handling it.P1090002You can clean up a local beach anytime, but many groups organize clean ups regularly, such as Surfrider. Check out their website and look for your local chapter, if, like us, you’re lucky enough to live by the ocean. P1080998