...The, enclosed, beach is silent. The bright ball blinds you as it emerges; it rises like a yellow lollipop on the distant horizon. Crashing against the shore, small waves wash the night's debris onto the land. Untouched golden sand covers the floor as far as your eyes can see. Soothing, a gentle sea breeze rustles through your hair. Beach shops prepare for their day of excited costumers bustling in and out of their small seafront shops. Opening their doors, they bring out all of there beach products looking out to the sea you can see the large cruise ships on the worlds edge. Abandoned, nothing there apart from a few sea gulls pecking at the rubbish left by yesterday's visitors. Empty crisp wrappers, chocolate wrappers, ice cream papers and half eaten cones scatter the yellow sand. Young children stumble onto the moist sand, with small buckets and spades in their hands, they shout and talk in excitement. Damp sand is forced between their toes. Straight away, the young children put on their swimming costumes and are smothered with thick white sun screen, to protect them from the bright sun. Children running towards the shoreline; their parents struggle onto the sand, loaded like camels with everything they will need for their day. Sandwiches, cold drinks, wind breakers, towels all bagged up and slung over both shoulders. A hot sea breeze rushes through the visitor's hair, as you stand there you can taste the salt in the air because it is so strong. The sound of the waves crashing...
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...Trashed Up Beaches You're in your car pulling up to the beach excited to have an great time, you walk out your car with your towels and beach umbrella and look around the beach for a place to set up, but instead you see debris everywhere food, bottles, and plastic wraps. Immediately you feel disgusted by the trash and you don't want to be at the beach anymore but you already paid and there's no other beach nearby so you stay. You set up the umbrella and try to have fun although the sea looks unclean so there you are not knowing what to do. You decide to eat the sandwich you brought but can't find a trash bin for the plastic wrap, you're forced to walk to the boardwalk just to throw out a sandwich wrapper? If that was you would you like to go back to that beach? I know that most people wouldn't because they don't want to be in a trash filled environment....
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...They are relatively strong, narrow current flowing outward from the beach through the surf zone and presenting a hazard to swimmers. They typically extend from the shoreline, through the surf zone, and past the line of breaking waves. Rip currents can occur at any beach with breaking waves. On the Pacific Ocean coast line, the prevailing winds are behind the waves, which increase the waves' energy. On the Atlantic Ocean coast, the prevailing winds blow against the incoming waves, decreasing the waves' energy. Rip currents can be killers. The United States Lifesaving Association estimates that the annual number of deaths due to rip currents on our nation's beaches exceeds one hundred (2016). If the distance between the wavelengths is long then the waves are shorter and smoother; if the distance of the wavelength is shorter than the waves are bigger and rougher. In the Pacific Ocean’s water, the average wavelength...
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...Waves Waves are generated by wind blowing over the sea. The characteristics of waves are determined by the strength of the wind, its duration and fetch (distance a wave travels). The stronger the wind the greater the friction on the surface of the sea and therefore the bigger the wave. Constructive waves Constructive waves are flat and low in height and have a long wave length. Their strong swash carries material up the beach, forming a berm. They have a low frequency of between 6 and 8 waves per minute. The wave energy dissipates over a wide area which results in a weak backwash. Destructive waves Destructive waves have a large wave height and short wave length. They have tall breakers that have a high downward force and a strong backwash. Their frequency is high with between 13 and 15 waves per minute. Their strong downward energy helps erode beach material and cliffs. The strong backwash results in narrow beach profiles. Tides Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels. Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and to a lesser extent the sun. When the earth, the moon and sun are aligned the gravitational pull is at it’s greatest. This creates a Spring tide. A Spring tide results in a high, high tide and low, low tide. This creates a high tidal range (difference between the highest and lowest tide) and results in stronger tidal currents than normal. Spring tides usually occur twice a month when there is a full moon. When the sun and moon are at a right angle to...
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...and returned home. But how could he? And so, he laboured on, carrying out his routine tasks, as he heard the mason and his labourers arrive. The arriving party laughed and taunted each other merrily as they carried their tools and marched onto the stairs, heading for the third floor. Their voices and the rumble of the machines provided a nice distraction from his desperate calculations. “I’ll focus on them”, he thought as he heard one of the labourers saying that the roof was shaking from all the weight that was being put on it. “Of course, all the spare raw material’s been placed on the roof”, he remembered. Just then the building violently shook to its very core and with a deep rumble, the roof caved in. Now, as he lay beneath the debris of what had been a factory in the city’s busy industrial estate, he could hear the others. Calling out to each other, crying with the agonizing pain of being crushed under a three floor building, they prayed for some miracle. He couldn’t feel anything, not even pain. But why? Why couldn’t...
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...Inquiry into Marine and Coastal Pollution CONTENTS CHAPTER 2 ▪ BACKGROUND ▪ General ▪ The Problems ▪ Declining water quality ▪ Loss of marine and coastal habitats ▪ Lack of strategic planning and management practices ▪ Lack of marine science policy CHAPTER 2 BACKGROUND General As an island continent with a long coastline Australia has many different marine and estuarine environments. These span a wide range of coastal types, climates and geological and biological regions, which house a rich store of biological diversity. Many are far away from major population centres and are little affected by human activities. Large stretches of the coastline are among the least polluted places on earth.Australia's marine environment spans almost 60 degrees in latitude, from Torres Strait to Heard and Macquarie Islands, and 75 degrees longitude, from Cocos Island to Norfolk Island. In November 1994 the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) came into effect, and with it Australia's declaration of its 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The EEZ covers over 11 million square kilometres, one of the largest in the world.UNCLOS provides the rights to exploit the natural resources of the EEZ but also obliges Australia, under Article 192, to protect and preserve the marine environment of the EEZ. The Convention requires Australia to prevent land based and ship sourced marine pollution...
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...plastic waste in the same way we examine at the Great Pyramids of Giza? In no way toning-down the wonders and ingenuity of Giza, trillions of plastic pieces are a much louder and statement. To think, the water bottle you threw out the other day has the potential to shape recorded history. Now, if you’re like me and get genuinely embarrassed by the world’s negligence of it’s oceans, there is still hope to alleviate this polymer nightmare. Indeed, strives are being made to clean the oceans. South Korea has implemented a floating “containment boom” for debris in the sea of Japan. Roughly 1300 tons of debris in the region are collected annually (Marine Debris Occurrence and Treatment). The 1300 tons collected in the sea of Japan account for 10% of the annual plastic removal from the oceans (Marine Debris Occurrence and Treatment). For the past 25 years, an organization called Ocean Conservancy has been leading the world in volunteer beach clean up. In 2015, nearly 800,000 volunteers collected 9,031 tons of trash from beaches (Ocean Crusaders). Of the 9,031 tons of trash collected, about 1.3 million pieces were micro-plastics (Ocean Crusaders). ...
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...the sea floor at a depth of 365 meters, and continued to the depth of 4,000 meters. What they found was a lot of trash, one-third of the trash was plastic, of these objects half were plastic bags. Metal was the second common form of debris found, aluminum cans, steel, and tin cans were found. Other things were found as well that include rope, fishing equipment, glass bottles, paper, and cloth. Kyra made a good point, “We don’t usually think of our daily activities affecting life two miles deep in the...
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...A Systems Analysis of Plastic Debris in the Pacific Ocean Course: Integrated Environmental Systems Instructor: Steven Arnold Fall Quarter University of Denver By: Cletus Achibonga November 7, 2012 Table of content Title 1 Abstract 4 Introduction 5 1.1 Scope 5 1.2 Background 5 Animal and plant deaths 8 2.1 Birds 8 2.2 Mammals and other animals 10 2.3 Plants and plant food 11 Environmental impacts 12 3.1 Physical impacts 13 3.2 Chemical impacts 14 3.3 Biological impacts 14 3.4 Human impacts 15 3.5 Economic impacts 16 Societal Responds 17 Conclusion and Recommendation 20 References: 21 List of figures Figure 1: A pack of plastics at the shores of Kamilo Beach, Island of Hawaii 8 Figure 2: Bird corpse with ingested plastic 10 Figure 3: Seal entangled in fishing nets and lines 11 Figure 4: DPSIR model analysis of the pacific gyre 18 Abstract The pacific patch is the most devastating problem of our generation yet there is little public knowledge about the nature and severity of the situation. There is also little to no awareness as to the way we humans either intentionally or unintentionally contribute to the worsening situation in our water bodies. This study used the DPSIR model in analyzing the problem of the pacific gyre from a systems perspective. It focused on the impacts of the pacific gyre on the environment, plants, animals as well as the ecosystem...
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...The Great Pacific Garbage Patch College Writing August 10, 2009 Using our oceans as garbage dumps has had negative effects on both sea life and the environment. Imagine walking by the beach in Carlsbad, California and dropping the cap from your soda bottle; as you reach to pick it up, a wave comes and sweeps it from your grasp. Three years later that cap is part of a floating island of debris in the North Pacific Ocean, that some estimate to be twice the size of Texas. Humans are having a devastating impact on the earth’s oceans. Billions of tons of recyclables have found their way to the middle of the ocean. Many studies regarding the impact of plastics on the environment have been done, yet little has been done to understand what devastating effects this will have on our environment in the future. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of the largest trash vortexes known to researchers. It is interesting to know that, currently, more than 60 billion tons of plastic are produced each year, and less than 5% of that is ever recycled. (Walsh) Plastic bags, bottles, toys, sun glasses and even shoes can be found floating in this giant mass of garbage. It is located in the remote waters between California and Hawaii, does not have distinct boundaries and varies in length and location throughout the year. This area moves seasonally between 23° and 37° N latitude. (NOS) Ocean currents grab the garbage and take it out to sea. It accumulates in different places where...
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...Plastics in the Oceans We live in an increasing disposable world. Everything from food to electronics ends up in a landfill somewhere. We are always looking for newer and better products to replace what we already have. The consequences of this behavior are resulting in more and larger landfills, toxic water and a myriad of other problems. With our growing population and excessive consumption, the items we use everyday are becoming disposable so the garbage problem continues to expand exponentially. It is a readily accepted fact that plastics has made our lives both easier and safer, but, at the same time, has also left a damaging imprint on our environment and even our health. The waste management industry has done a very clever job of keeping the inner workings of landfill disposal cloaked in secrecy. As a result we give less and less thought to what actually happens to all the trash we throw away every day. Our culture of convenience is so dominant we do not even see the consequences of our actions. Journalist and filmmaker Heather Rogers, in her essay “The Hidden Life of Garbage” takes us on a journey of garbage disposal that most of us never think about once we take the trash to the curb. She explains one particular method that should give us all pause for thought: In new state-of-the-art landfills, the cells that contain the trash are built on top of what is called a “liner.” The liner is a giant underground bladder intended to prevent contamination of groundwater...
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...Nicknamed the "Eastern Garbage Patch," this buoyant stew of toxic pollution-most of which is plastic-is only one of five such garbage heaps caught in the swirling high-pressure currents characteristic of gyres. The others reside in the South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. And each year, perhaps unwittingly, each one of us adds to plastic to the heap. Plastic makes it into our oceans in a variety of ways. About twenty percent of it comes from goods lost from boats: i.e. accidental loss of fishing tackle and other recreational gear, massive shipping containers carrying millions of plastic items washed overboard during severe storms; litter from pleasure boats, or illegal dumping of unwanted goods. Beachgoer’s debris is also a contributor. The other eighty percent is swept in from land. Just as Nonpoint Source Pollution from fertilizers, detergents, and pesticides find their way into our waters, so too are plastic items washing into our blue oceans. A discarded bottle cap or an empty sandwich bag thoughtlessly left along the side of the road will eventually be blown or kicked or washed into a storm drain, which will then shoot it straight into the ocean. Not all plastic floats. In fact, nearly half of it sinks to the bottom of...
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...com/locate/marpolbul Impacts of marine debris on wild animals in the coastal area of Korea Sunwook Hong a,f, Jongmyoung Lee a,f,⇑, Yong Chang Jang a, Young Jun Kim b, Hee Jong Kim c, Donguk Han d, Sang Hee Hong e, Daeseok Kang f, Won Joon Shim e a Our Sea of East Asia Network, 722 Leadersvill 1570-8, Jukrim, Gwangdo, Tongyeong, Gyeongnam 650-826, South Korea Chungnam Wild Animal Rescue Center, 1 Dehoi, Yesaneup, Yesan County, Chungnam 340-702, South Korea c Migratory Birds Center of National Park Research Institute, Hongdo, Heuksan, Shinan, Jeonnam 535-916, South Korea d PGA Wetland Ecology Institute, 240-2, Dejang, Deokyang, Goyang City, Gyeonggi 412-250, South Korea e Oil & POPs Research Group, Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology, 391 Jangmok-myon, Geoje 656-834, South Korea f Pukyong National University, 45, Yongso-ro, Nam-Gu, Busan 608-737, South Korea b a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Marine debris Entanglement Ingestion Threatened species Recreational fishing gear a b s t r a c t Over the last decade, marine debris has become a major factor affecting the coastal ecosystem of Korea. This study compiled information regarding how marine debris impacts wildlife in Korea. Cases of marine debris impacting wildlife were collected from experts of various fields and from local participants through an open access website from February 2010 to March 2012. A total of 21 species were affected by marine debris: 18 species of birds, 2 species of...
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...as plastic debris is a known culprit of injuries and even the deaths of many marine animals. For instance, plastic bags are commonly mistaken by animals, both in marine ecosystems as well as on land, as a type of food “especially when the bags carry food residues, are brightly coloured...
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...swim until we were exhausted. Games would last until we could hear our parents yelling for us to return to the home for the diner, and even then most of us would wait a while longer until we were "in trouble" for not listening. The parents generally didn't mind because they knew we were having a great time. The years grew on and we still played, but more of the kids stoped playing or moved so the games were not exciting as when we played as kids. The the beach provided entertainment for everyone. Whether for the older folks relaxing in the sand and tannning or getting their feet just wet. young kids playing in the shallow water, where you can see to the bottom of the ocean. swiming with the small fish nipping at their feet. My generation prefered the wild side of the beach and we would swim out as far as we could, with crashing waves and the adrienline running the farther we went. Nothing can match the feeling after a good long day at the beach. Usually lunchtime\dinner was spent eating fresh fish and fried plantes by the beach. Panama city the captial of panama is definitely a veery busy city. No matter where I go, I can see confusion that never seems to end. There seems to be an endless amount of cars flowing through the streets and honking horns. vendors on every corner selling everything from food the clothes. traffic as...
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