the state of our seas

[saint-spoon]

“The debris that gets into the our seas includes everything from carrier bags and crisp packets to balloons, cigarette filters and random plastic pellets, as well as fishing gear and all of it has a negative impact on wildlife……In April 2002 a Minke whale was washed up on a beach in Normandy and was subsequently found with 800kg of plastic bags in its stomach (including two from an English supermarket). The artificial load the whale was carrying in it’s stomach probably killed it- it would not have been able to eat anything else and simply starved to death…… The ball park figure is that100,000 marine mammals and unknown (but vast) numbers of seabirds and turtles die every year from entanglement in or ingestion of plastic of one sort or another.â€

[morph]

Very very sad

It's horrible when we see reports of this happening

[AnnaB]

saint-spoon

Don't forget the cruise ships - everything goes over board......

[wendy]

As a cruise ship passenger. I have to say that they put nothing over board. Not since NCL was fined a huge amount many years ago for doing so. Everything is squeezed down and packaged up and disposed of on shore. Everything that it is possible to do so, is recycled. Every bit of left over food is freeze dried and then ground down to a fine powder and fed to the fish. No, the major cruise lines are not guilty of that one.
Spencer was a navigating officer before he joined the police force in the 60's. He says the seas are so much better nowadays, than they ever were then.
We cruise a couple of times a year and I can honestly say I have very, very rarely seen anything, other than coconuts, floating in the sea.
It must be coming from somewhere, but not the cruise ships.

[Richard]

I visit Netley on Southampton Water a lot and have to say that any rubbish on the Beach there is usually left by Picnickers or thrown out of car windows by those sitting in their cars watching the boats go by.

I saw a Documentary about the birds dying from Plastic Bags and it is quite horrible.

I do recall more items washed up on the Shores years ago, but there wasn't much plastic around then, so it just composted itself on the Beach.

I would also suggest that it isn't the Cruise Ships that throw stuff overboard - it's the passengers and I've seen this often on my trips accross from Dover to Calais anf they come from all walks of life.

[wendy]

You are not allowed to even throw a cigarette over the side of the ships I have been on. You get into major problems if you do.
All the security are recuited from the Gurhka's, you do as you are told LOLOL
Wendy

[saint-spoon]

As Wendy says the big companies are aren’t to blame; not because of their eco-mindedness but because of the huge penalties incurred in the shape of fines and removal of licenses etc. The MARPOL (maritime pollution) regulations are extremely tight, no oily wastes or plastics can be dumped anywhere at sea, food and sewage and greywater (from showers and basins) are limited to deep sea and further restrictions apply in special areas. Believe it or not satellites track ships at random (or so I am led to believe) so there’s no hiding. I’m a marine engineer by trade (and in practice) so this all comes under my job description. As Richard pointed out, a lot of the problem is folk dropping litter on beaches and pleasure boaters ditching their rubbish. Trawler nets are also a big thing, the MOD has a department that deals with trawlers that claim that their nets have been snagged on a nuclear submarine, easy compensation if you’ve got a old and damaged net (allegedly). Culture, I would argue is also to blame; if you go to Japan there are rubbish bins on every lamppost and dropping litter is seen as a dishonour on your family hence litter free streets. I got into an argument a couple of month back because I made a comment to a woman whose child had just dropped a crisp packet. She claimed that her child hadn’t been eating crisps. The child had crisps around its face and all over it’s hands and I’d watched it drop the packet; is there any hope for this child if it sees that at the correct way to live its life? I would have got a wallop for dropping the packet and another for lying, I now know that it’s wrong to drop litter.

Releasing balloons for what ever cause is also really bad as they look just like turtle food when they land in the sea……

[Mo]

Releasing balloons for what ever cause is also really bad as they look just like turtle food when they land in the sea……

Even if they didn't land in the sea, what do people think happens to them? They are bound to end up as litter.
Should all helium filled balloons be banned? They are so nice, but most escape.

[saint-spoon]

Releasing balloons for what ever cause is also really bad as they look just like turtle food when they land in the sea……

Even if they didn't land in the sea, what do people think happens to them? They are bound to end up as litter.
Should all helium filled balloons be banned? They are so nice, but most escape.

According to the Marine conservation society (MCS) one of the biggest pollution items is cigarette ends, they form more than double that of carrier bags on Britain’s beaches. What is more they recon that this number is going to soar because of the smoking ban in pubs and clubs. Other top polluters are cotton buds, plastic bottle tops and sweet wrappers.

On the plus side Sainsbury’s have apparently halted a balloon release at one of their stores’ opening (after pressure from the MCS). The Sidney Olympics also had a balloon ban for ecological reasons. Currently the “Don’t let goâ€