What happens when the oceans are filled with plastic?
5 Gyres is a research project, sailing in the Atlantic, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, studying how much plastic has accumulated in the major ocean gyres and the effects that plastic has on marine life. Anna Kärrman and Anna Rotander, researchers at Örebro University, Sweden, are boarding the ship to test fish as well as sea water for environmental toxins. While on board, the researchers will blog about their experiences.
"We are interested in finding out if water-soluble environmental toxins, which can be found in plastic material, can be found in sea water," says Anna Kärrman, who will be on the ship in April and May and sail from the Easter Island to Tahiti through the South Pacific.
The researchers will collect fish in order to analyse different organs, for example their livers, but also muscle tissue to measure the levels of different environmental toxins contained in the fish.
"We will be collecting water samples and fish and the preparatory work will be carried out on board the ship and then concluded in our laboratory in Örebro, says Anna Rotander, who is leaving on 5 February to board the ship in Uruguay, returning to Sweden in March via Chile."
"But I am also excited, if that is indeed the right word, to see with my own eyes the large quantities of plastic floating around in the ocean. Something that other researchers on board 5 Gyres have told us about from their previous voyages," says Anna Kärrman.
5 Gyres is primarily examining what happens when marine animals get caught in or eat the plastic. The researchers have found birds that have died because their stomachs are full of plastic objects, and large quantities of plastic – ranging from tiny microparticles to large objects – are caught in the ship's trawl.
The Örebro researchers, from the Man-Technology-Environment Research Centre (MTM) at Örebro University, are pursuing the plastic trail. The plastic, which has been used by humans and disposed of somewhere on land, is ultimately washed out to sea and becomes for instance fish food. The trail then leads back to humans, since we consume the fish contaminated with the toxins found in the plastic it ate. The toxins can then be found in our blood.
Commissioned by the United Nations' Safe Planet campaign, MTM also analyses blood from volunteers. They are testing for long-life substances that stay in our bodies for decades and that pose a health threat – potentially causing cancer and having adverse effects on human reproduction and development.
5 Gyres, the UN's Safe Planet and the Örebro researchers are working together to raise awareness and spread information. The aim is for rules and legislation concerning chemicals that are a hazard both to human health and the environment to be made even more stringent than today.
Text: Linda Harradine
Translation: Charlotta Hambre-Knight
Photo: 5Gyres