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Tourist?? or Litter?


Figure 1: Microplastic Pollution in the Ocean 

In recent years, marine ecosystems have been dying due to poor management and tourism. Pollution on popular beaches has increased exponentially, one of the most common pollutants found are plastics as they make up about 96% of the total pollution. The presence of microplastics in the environment is increasing due to its high production rates, and they typically end up being ingested by marine creatures. As these creatures tend to confuse their colorful scheme and resemblance to their corresponding prey. Traces of this plastic and other pollutants are being found inside the marine organisms in increasing amounts as time continues. Studies have been conducted in observation of the impact pollution has on tourist beaches. The study was sampled by counting the number of people present at the selected beaches and the variety of pollution found in the beaches. The selected beaches were separated into 3 categories, village, remote, and urban. 

From the gathered results pollution ranging from glass to rubble was discovered. Traces of litter were commonly found in the urban beaches. Surveys conducted demonstrated the main cause of microplastic pollution were tourists. Especially at the high peaks of tourism. Long term initiative to decrease the amount of microplastic pollution found would have to be done by legislation. By doing so the consumption of these pollutants would decrease and individuals can become responsible for using them. Eastern countries are currently working together to ban disposable plastics. Manual removal of plastic pollution is continuously happening thanks to the efforts of volunteers nevertheless pollution keeps occurring at the peaks of tourism. 

References: 

Barcelo, D., & Pico, Y. (2020). Case Studies of Macro- and Microplastics Pollution in Coastal Waters and Rivers: Is There a Solution With New Removal Technologies and Policy Actions? Case Studies in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, 100019. doi:10.1016/j.cscee.2020.100019

Garcés-Ordóñez, O., Díaz, L. F., Cardoso, R. P., & Muniz, M. C. (2020). The impact of tourism on marine litter pollution on Santa Marta beaches, Colombian Caribbean. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 160, 111558. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111558






Comments

  1. Odalys EspinozaSeptember 25, 2020 at 10:40 PM

    This research article was extremely informative and one of the most common issues that we face today. It is an unfortunate situation for all marine creatures who are currently suffering from plastic debris. The sad part is that this is something that can be easily avoided if we all worked together and if everyone understood the damage that plastic pollution has caused for hundreds of species.

    ReplyDelete
  2. M MendezOctober 21, 2020 at 5:15 PM

    Maybe the environmentally sustainable message here would be to focus on educating tourists so that they take ownership of the beaches that they visit. Unfortunately, this is centered around addressing human behavior.

    ReplyDelete

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