Photographer's Note
Can you imagine that mountain?
The mass of plastic in the oceans may be as high as one hundred million metric tons - 100000000.
Plastic debris tends to accumulate at the centre of ocean gyres. In particular, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has a very high level of plastic particulate suspended in the upper water column.
Plastics accumulate because they don't biodegrade in the way many other substances do. They will photodegrade on exposure to the sun, but they do so properly only under dry conditions, and water inhibits this process. In marine environments, photodegraded plastic disintegrates into ever smaller pieces while remaining polymers, even down to the molecular level. When floating plastic particles photodegrade down to zooplankton sizes, jellyfish attempt to consume them, and in this way the plastic enters the ocean food chain.
Toxic additives used in the manufacture of plastic materials can leach out into their surroundings when exposed to water.
Floating debris can also absorb persistent organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT and PAHs.
Aquatic life can be threatened through entanglement, suffocation, and ingestion. Fishing nets, usually made of plastic, can be left or lost in the ocean by fishermen. Known as ghost nets, these entangle fish, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, dugongs, crocodiles, seabirds, crabs, and other creatures, restricting movement, causing starvation, laceration and infection, and, in those that need to return to the surface to breathe, suffocation.
Welcome in the plastic-world...
For more: Wikipedia, Marine Pollution
Mondaychild has marked this note useful
Critiques | Translate
Mondaychild
(378) 2013-02-23 11:14
Hallo Janos,
neulich postete Marie Louise (maloutim) ein Foto zum selben Thema: eine am Strand liegende Meeresschildkröte, die an den Plastikabfällen zugrunde gegangen war.
Auch dein Foto hier zeigt etwas nur oberflächlich Schönes: Die diagonale Komposition mit den Texturen des Meeres und des Sandes, darauf die beiden verschieden geformten Plastikteile. Das alles farblich sehr harmonisch. Hat was von Land-Art.
Ein Bild, das gefällt. Ein Bild, das schön ist. Auf den ersten Blick. Bis man die Geschichte kennt.
Aber vielleicht ist das der richtige Weg: Mit einem schönen Bild, mit einem "Hingucker" auf einen Missstand aufmerksam zu machen. So erreicht man viele.
Gisi
Photo Information
-
Copyright: Janos Sofalvi (joso)
(2417)
- Genre: Places
- Medium: Color
- Date Taken: 2011-12-28
- Categories: Nature
- Camera: Nikon D-90, 18-105mm 3.5 - 5.6G ED AF-S VR Nikkor
- Exposure: f/10.0, 1/320 seconds
- More Photo Info: view
- Photo Version: Original Version
- Date Submitted: 2013-02-21 23:02