Expiry by plastic waste

The carcass of a Dark-green turtle after government veterinarians failed to salvage information technology by intravenous feeding at the marine eye in Chantaburi province, Thailand. Plastic and other rubbish filled the turtle'due south abdominal rail, leaving information technology unable to consume and caused its death two days afterward. (Handout / Marine and Coastal Resource Development Centre / AFP Photograph)

Humanity's indelible love thing with plastic, a love more than pronounced in the Southeast Asian region, has claimed another victim. This time, the victim is so rare that it was once thought to take been extinct 65 million years ago and is known past the moniker "living fossil". This week, pictures have surfaced of a dead Coelacanth taken by a fisherman in Republic of indonesia in 2016 but only recently shared. Potential cause of death: Lay'south Potato Chips plastic nutrient wrappers effectually its intestines. Only ii out of 90 historical species of the Coelacanth are known to still exist extant in the waters off Republic of kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Southward Africa, Madagascar, Comoros and Indonesia.

The endangered Coelacanth at present joins a heart-breaking group of marine animals threatened by the increasing amount of plastic droppings in our oceans. In Southeast Asia, a number of endangered marine animals killed with large amounts of plastic in their stomachs have been reported past the media. In June, a Pilot whale was constitute beached in Songkhla, Southern Thailand, high-strung to death by eighty pieces of plastic rubbish weighing eight kilograms in its stomach. In the same month, a Green turtle was found dead in Chanthaburi, Thailand, with plastic shreds from angling gear, rubber bands and other marine droppings in its tum. In 2016, a Sei whale and a Baleen whale were found beached in the southern Malaysian state of Johor. Although it was non a conclusive cause for their deaths, plastic droppings was constitute in their stomachs.

These cases highlighted in the media are merely the tip of the iceberg. While cases involving large or iconic species such as whales, dolphins and turtles are given a lot of media attention, many other animals from less iconic species killed by marine plastic debris are often sadly overlooked. A marine biologist and lecturer at Kasetsart University, Thon Thamrongnawasawat, told the media that about 300 marine animals dice each year in Thailand as a issue of ingesting plastic. Globally, information technology is estimated that over 100 1000000 marine animals are killed each year by plastic waste matter. This include species mentioned to a higher place too every bit fish, seals and birds.

Marine death by plastic in ASEAN
Source:Various

Southeast Asia's bounding main of plastic

In its reports, the Un Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that over 300 one thousand thousand tons of plastic are produced every year, half of which is used in making single-use items such as shopping bags, cups and straws. Simply nine per centum of the nine billion tons of plastic the world has ever produced has been recycled, with the remaining ending up in landfills, dumps or in the environment. This includes at least eight million tons of plastic ending up in the oceans every year. Floating plastic debris is currently the most abundant detail of marine litter, making upwardly 80 percent of all marine debris.

Five Southeast Asian countries, namely Republic of indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia are among the elevation 10 countries worldwide ranked by mass of mismanaged plastic waste. The five Asean member states collectively contributed 8.9 million metric tons of mismanaged plastic waste material, defined as fabric that is either littered or inadequately disposed in dumps or open, uncontrolled landfills. Mismanaged waste could eventually enter the sea via inland waterways, wastewater outflows, and transport by current of air or tides.

Co-ordinate to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), marine plastic pollution has affected at to the lowest degree 267 species, almost visibly and disturbingly past ingestion, suffocation and entanglement. Floating plastic waste material is often mistaken for nutrient by marine animals and once ingested, these animals will die slowly of starvation as their stomachs are filled with plastic debris.

Decease of a gentle giant

Defined would attest that a shark whale sighting is 1 of the most desired encounters of the marine kind. The deadening-moving filter-feeding gentle giants take been described as majestic and magical, putting many of those who are lucky enough to see them in the wild into a trance with their gracefulness. This week, a whale shark was found beached on the Philippine shores of Tagum Urban center in Davao del Norte. Environmentalist Darrell Blatchley reported that there was plastic waste lodged in the gills of the xiv-foot juvenile whale shark which had to be pried out, while more plastic waste product was institute inside its stomach, blocking the fine filters of its intestines. He added the whale shark was also underweight and emaciated.

The UNEP estimates that the economic damage caused by plastic waste in the Asia-Pacific tourism, line-fishing and aircraft industries is well-nigh United states of america$1.3 billion every twelvemonth. This represents 10 percent of the total annual economical harm to the world's marine ecosystem acquired by plastic.

It is undeniable that plastic is a useful material in our everyday life. However, its use should not be at the expense of the environment every bit nosotros clearly cannot cope with the amount of plastic waste we generate. Unless nosotros rethink our toxic relationship with plastic, our addiction to it could prove to be detrimental and even fatal to all life on the planet.