European Union Pays Fisherman To Catch Plastic, Not Fish.
By Stiv Wilson on May 17, 2011
|
|
Tweet |
|
|
|
Okay, this is news of the weird. I've been hearing rumbles for awhile that that the EU was going to be granting significant funds to help solve marine plastic pollution issue. Recently they announced a pretty strange program aimed at killing two birds with one stone: overfishing and plastic pollution. Maria Damanaki, the EU's fisheries commissioner announced that a pilot project will begin in The Mediterranean this month where fisherman will be given 'special nets' to collect plastic garbage in their waters. There are several questions about the program that haven't been answered: what's the net design and how does one sine plastic from the ocean without bycatch? Typically, a plastic trawling net is the same weave as a plankton net (300 microns) which means it gathers everything present in the water except the water itself. 
(this is photograph of an actual sample taken in the South Atlantic Gyre on a 5 Gyres expedition. Note that plastic fragments co-mingle with biomass. Microplastics in the ocean, as defined by being smaller than 5mm in size are what blanket the oceans like confetti. When plastic enters the ocean, the polymer chains of hydrocarbons break apart from the sun, corrosion and wave action, but the hydrocarbon molecules themselves do not breakdown but persist in these very small fragments.)
The 5 Gyres Institute has long been skeptical of oceanic cleanup efforts for a host of reasons. One, the ocean is really big. Two, the bycatch would be astronomical. Contrary to what Damanaki states as a 'growing value in recycling markets' the market for biofouled plastic is at present zero, though Damanaki believes that the plastic catch is economically valuable enough to collect and sell, though the claim can't be substantiated. EU subsidies will buoy the project at first, hoping that this economic model will emerge when the subsidy runs out.
Read a description of the project here.
The Plastic Promise
By taking this pledge, you can make a difference.
Take and Share the Plastic Promise
Tags
Plastic Pollution Ban The Bag Marine Debris Conference South Pacific Gyre South Pacific Garbage Patch Maximenko
