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At least 8 million tons of plastic enters our oceans each year - that's one garbage truck a minute.
- The Problem
- Past Efforts
- Ongoing
Plastic pollution has become an inescapable feature of the world’s oceans – persisting for multiple generations. Since mass production of plastics began in the 1950s, the global amount of plastic manufactured has increased rapidly, with 100s of millions of tons produced each year. An estimated 10% of all plastic produced ends up in the ocean. Plast...
The Midway Atoll NWR marine debris coastal monitoring project focused on: 1. Helping monitor the types of marine debris deposited on Midway Atoll NWR’s beaches 2. Obtaining baseline data to identify and target debris sources 3. Developing a solid waste removal plan to send marine debris off Midway Atoll NWR for recycling 4. Creating an education ca...
USFWS staff, volunteers, and researchers regularly clean marine debris off of Midway Atoll NWR’s beaches – check out these before and after photos! [color-box]
Nov 7, 2019 · In this Oct. 22, 2019, photo, dead seabirds lie on a pier with plastic debris on Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Midway is littered with countless bird skeletons that have brightly colored plastic protruding from their now decomposing intestines.
Oct 29, 2018 · The Midway Furious Five collected more than 25,000 pounds of debris in the last 10 days we were on Midway, plus the 30,000 pounds that our whole team collected—totaling over 55,000 pounds on Midway alone! As we boarded our plane to head back to Honolulu, we all reflected on the last few weeks.
Feb 9, 2015 · This tiny speck of land — about 3,200 miles from San Francisco and 1,200 miles northwest of the main Hawaiian Islands — is blanketed not just by birds, but also by garbage. Plastic is so ubiquitous on Midway that every single albatross on the island will likely die with a stomach full of it.
Dec 9, 2016 · If you kneel down on Midway and stick your hand into the hot sand, you can pull up a troubling multicolored array of particles. These are what activists call the “new sand” — plastic that has broken down into smaller and smaller pieces, and then become part of the shoreline.
Jun 22, 2011 · On Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, dead albatross chicks are often found with stomachs full of plastic junk. Chris Jordan. The scientists painstakingly counted each tiny, plastic fragment by hand, using a tool resembling tweezers. The team estimated that the region contains 2.4 million pounds of plastic.
