PLASTIC

The Seas and Oceans produce over 60% of our Oxygen supply, more than double the production from Rainforests which for years we have been urged to protect. Unfortunately until now no such protection exists for the Seas and Oceans.

The production of Oxygen takes place on the immediate underside of the surface of the Sea. What happens is a tiny organism that lives on the under surface assists in the splitting of H2O allowing quick evaporation of the O part into the atmosphere. The 2 H particles eventually feed sea plants.

The tiny mico organism that does this has a problem which if not solved will lead to a lack of Oxygen and a problem for us. So let us look at the problems this tiny microbe has. 1. Oil. As you reead this somewhere in the World Tankerships will be at sea and washing their tanks. This is done to cut costs as to do it legally in port costs thousands of dollars. Right now this is happening. Usually the tankers who do this are small to medium who trade Seas rather than Oceans. Each time a single small tanker does this it leaves a wake on the surface of a mixture of detergent and oil for about 35 nautical miles (65 km.) Depending on weather conditions the wake widens as it disperses to about 400 meters. An area equal to a million square meters or 100 hectares.

Simply put, the tiny microbe with the wake dies. It's like cutting down 100 hectares of rain forest in 3 hours. Of course the tiny microbes later multiply faster than a rain forest regrows but in the meantime Oxygen production stops in that area. As a protector of the Oceans I have taken part in action at sea against this abuse of the Sea by Tankship Captains and owners. Pirates it seems are alone in this defence of the Seas.

In the time it took you to read this far, several hundred hectares of tiny microbes have died. Plastic. They say plastic takes hundreds of years to dissipate. In some cases this may be true but it would seem there are many kinds of plastic in the sea. 99% of which floats as flotsam. 1% such as plastic sheeting or bags etc often get deeper due to currents and tides and the problems caused to marine life have been well documented by Sky Sea Rescue and others. The 99% visible plastic is made up of an incredible diverse items and therefore a multi diverse type of plastic, it's not all the same. Light plastic will quickly arrive on a beach somewhere, due to it's flotsam qualities the wind will play a big part.

Medium and broken plastic which unfortunately seems to be the largest part of the problem will split in to two or even three groups depending mostly on underwater form and depth. One group will eventually wash up within a month and the second group after about 2 or depening in tides 3 months. The third group of plastic flotsam will gather itself driven on by current and tide. Usually this group will include amongst it some rope or bits of netting which helps it all stay together as one. After 2 months this last group will have other assistance to keep it together.

Marine life will start to cling on and the flotsam will quickly become a mini marine life floating island, crabs and all. Slowly the original plastic forming this floating island starts to decay eaten by seaweed roots and plastic eating microbes. The plastic living island eventually dies away and the marine inhabitants find a new one to call home. Now the problem here is the same as the Oil Tank ships. How and why the plastic decays is not my Domain but whatever reaction, chemical or other, the tiny Oxygen producing microbe dies.

I am not a Scientist, they are too many already, I am a Pirate but have quickly understood that in the decay of the plastic something is given off that has the same effect as a Tank ship dumping oil. Of course the effect at present on our Oxygen supply in minimal, each group of flotsam contaminating about 10 sq meters but there are many of them and increasing all the time. Cruise ships. I'm going to make a simple sum to explain. 140 Cruise ships of which 85% pump bilges directly into the sea. = 120 ish. An average of 4000 people on each ship = 480,000.

That's almost half a million flushes of the toilet every day. At least half a million showers and millions of other water uses. Every day all this shit is dumped into the oceans including whatever other items end up being flushed. So to continue the sum. A cruise ship season of 200 days x half a million flushes = 100 million. Is it possible to imagine 100 million toilet flushes? I don't know, it's too big.

To be fair most of the waste eventually ends up on a crabs dinner table but the bilges also pump out all the soaps and oils including micro plastic and plastic based sanitary products. Once pumped out the bilges water disperses quickly due to the ships wake and the oils and plastic will surface within minutes and once again our old friend the tiny microbe who was quietly going about his business making our Oxygen has to go through a life crisis.

Plastic content. An empty thrown away bottled is never really empty. There will always be some residue on the inside of the bottle or container. Underwater such residues are extremely strong, the residue smell on a bottle of say Maple syrup will travel 20 or 30 meters and can attract honey loving marine life by the hoards. Other residues such as oil based products once again kill our tiny microbe friends for a few more hours. (Will be continued.)