"I want to say one word to you. Just one word...Plastics."

On a recent trip to Ka Lae, the southernmost point in the US on the Big Island of Hawaii, I found out how truly disgusting we, as a species, can be. After driving for what seemed like forever to get there, passing lots of fields, derelict and working wind farms, as well as some seemingly super-secret alien communication devices, we watched a few fishermen at work and the building seas crashing on the rocks and headed out on a walk for Papakolea Beach, the green sand beach. It was about mid-day when we set out with our friends over some dry, dry ground with not a swimming spot in site. I love the heat, but I only love the heat when there's a promise of a refreshing dip--with the current sea state, that didn't seem like much of an option. But we walked.

We hadn't walked 15 minutes when we veered off the jeep trail onto a lava rock beach trail. We were drawn in by a big green mass piled up on the beach. We had happened upon what must be the dirtiest beach in America. The green mass was an entangled wad of derelict fishing nets--monofilament, twine, plastic webbing, you name it, it was in there. Along with millions of tiny little chunks of plastic. That's right, Benjamin, "Plastics."

Now, as one who dabbles in the marine realm more than just occasionally and more than just as an innocent bystander, of course I have heard a lot about plastics in the ocean. But, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here goes:

I really had to see it with my own eyes. An instant depression hit me as we started to walk along this line of litter--it made me sad. Here we were miles from anywhere (a later look at Google Earth showed more than 1500 kilometers between us and the next closest landmasses beyond Hawaii, Johnston and Palmyra Atolls), and the filthiness of my fellow beings was overwhelming. So much for the last great places being in the middle of nowhere, "untouched" by human development.

A lot has been written about the different Pacific gyres and the "Garbage Patch" of plastic somewhere between Midway and the Pacific Coast of the mainland US. But we weren't even in that zone! The isolation of the beach we were on probably means limited clean-up by local groups, so whether the accumulated material is any more profound than on any of the surrounding beaches is unclear, but the sheer volume of plastic particles and unrecognizable chunks of items discarded left me wondering where the hell it's all coming from. Can this much plastic be discarded at sea? Or is it washing down rivers from points in the US, Mexico, Asia, etc.? One thing is for certain: plastic is persistent.

There are many scholarly articles about the implications of plastics in the environment, and specifically the ocean, ranging from impacts on seabird foraging (Copello and Quintana 2003) to plastics serving as a vector for dispersing harmful algal blooms (Maso et al. 2002). Those with a penchant for primary sources have no shortage to choose from, including articles in the more esteemed journals. For those less inclined toward small print, difficult to pronounce words, and agonizing layouts, many great blogs have pointed out the problem, including Fake Plastic Fish (http://www.fakeplasticfish.com) which is dedicated to the issue. But I can't say that this subject is really on the collective radar at this point judging by the lack of pressure to reduce the use of plastics.

As part of my strategy for the 2008 field season (whereby I spend my off-hours in enumerable crappy hotels with the same horrendous version of the American breakfast and too many sketchy pillows), I have pledged to pick up trash from the beaches and marshes I'm working in and dispose of it in the nearest trash receptacle. Yes, perhaps when you're out enjoying a day waterskiing with the boys, it's easier to toss the soda bottle overboard, but not only is that littering, it's contributing to the ugliness of some far flung beach that I would like to think of as "untouched." And if we, as scientists working in the marine realm, collectively did our part to clean up after others, we'd probably prevent a fair bit of trash from choking the very subjects of our studies.

Copello, S. and F. Quintana. 2003. Marine debris ingestion by Southern Giant Petrels and its potential relationship with fisheries in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. Marine Pollution Bulletin 46 (11): 1513-1515.

Maso, M., E. Garces, F. Pages, and J. Camp. 2002. Drifting plastic debris as a potential vector for dispersing Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) Species. Scientia Marina 67 (1): 107-111.