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Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

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Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#51

Post by christophilus »

epistasis wrote: post #24

To place this in context, it's 50,000 tons/year of fishing waste, versus 200,000 tons/year of microplastics from car tires: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyre... Further, microplastics enter the ecosystem far easier than the bulky big plastic from fishing gear, so the tire microplastics should be far more concerning to people. It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. Try to live a…

Pretty sure most plastic eventually becomes microplastic. So, the fishing waste is doubly bad because it chokes and traps aquatic life while on its way to doing whatever it is that microplastics do.

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#52

Post by ch4s3 »

hh3k0 wrote: post #25
dark-star wrote: post #6

It is so obvious, and has been known for years, yet the EU banned plastic straws because of the waste in the oceans, so now every drink tastes like a schoolbook. Well done EU...

> […] yet the EU banned plastic straws because of the waste in the oceans, so now every drink tastes like a schoolbook. Well done EU... Issues are not the Highlander: there can be more than one. Single-use plastics just happen to be a problem as well. And, for what it's worth, people who complain about paper straws remind me of sulky toddlers. Just FYI.

Paper straws are inferior in every respect except not be plastic. People encounter them regularly and the plastic variety never represented a significant portion of the problem. So in some ways the imposition of paper straws feels insulting. No one is going after tire manufacturers or commercial fishing companies, but straws got taken first. It feels like the whole campaign to guilt people for their personal carbon footprint. It’s just so atomized and so far downstream of actual issues.

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#53

Post by throwaway0a5e »

epistasis wrote: post #24

To place this in context, it's 50,000 tons/year of fishing waste, versus 200,000 tons/year of microplastics from car tires: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyre... Further, microplastics enter the ecosystem far easier than the bulky big plastic from fishing gear, so the tire microplastics should be far more concerning to people. It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. Try to live a…

This seems like needless injection of your pet issue into an only tangentially related subject. Cars are used for a huge fraction of the transportation in the world. It would be surprising if the oceans weren't full of tire dust and so on. (inb4 anyone construes this as an endorsement of the status quo wrt micro-plastics)

The fact that the commercial fishing industry manages to dump 1/4 of the tonnage of plastic into the ocean despite only a fraction of the human man hours dedicated to its operation and a fraction of the rolling/floating stock is pretty impressive. You'd think they were just throwing nets overboard.

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#54

Post by bilekas »

josho wrote: post #42
kohanz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it was your intent, but that comparison makes the fishing output seem even more outsized to me, given the size of the auto industry.

From a damage perspective the two couldn't be more different as well. Lost fishing gear is large bulky items that trap & kill sealife, damage habitat, etc. Whereas we aren't entirely sure what downsides micro-plastics have, I'm sure over time we'll discover issues. But, where we stand today we know that we have a clear and present danger from the fishing gear.

> I'm sure over time we'll discover issues. But, where we stand today we know that we have a clear and present danger from the fishing gear.

Whereas today, we already see the present danger of micro plastics.. Just because fishing takes part on 80% of the globe as opposed to the https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2022.8272...

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/micro....

Maybe lets not disregard the downsides just yet.

EDIT: Both are bad.. Plastic isn't helping anyone. Marine or mammal .

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#55

Post by causality0 »

epistasis wrote: post #24

To place this in context, it's 50,000 tons/year of fishing waste, versus 200,000 tons/year of microplastics from car tires: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyre... Further, microplastics enter the ecosystem far easier than the bulky big plastic from fishing gear, so the tire microplastics should be far more concerning to people. It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. Try to live a…

It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much.

It's really weird how trucks get a pass from people who don't give cars a pass. If tire wear is proportional to road wear, the majority of tire-originating microplastics is from semi trucks, not commuter sedans.

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#56

Post by gbear605 »

pfdietz wrote: post #22
01100011 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how they break down outside of a compost environment? My company uses "compostable" plastics which feel like normal plastic. I've used the same compostable clear plastic cup for months on end and it isn't showing any signs of degradation. I suspect it would break down in a proper compost pile(high temps and such) but outside of that environment it seems as durable as traditional plastic. Hopefully in an envi…

Our local composting company explicitly excludes compostable utensils and food containers. Compostable doesn't mean biodegradable. For example, compostable cardboard food containers may be coated with perfluoro compounds to prevent liquids from soaking into the cardboard. These don't biodegrade.

Hm, that’s strange since they break down fine in my home compost bin. I wonder what’s the difference for them?

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#57

Post by ruined »

josho wrote: post #42
kohanz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if it was your intent, but that comparison makes the fishing output seem even more outsized to me, given the size of the auto industry.

From a damage perspective the two couldn't be more different as well. Lost fishing gear is large bulky items that trap & kill sealife, damage habitat, etc. Whereas we aren't entirely sure what downsides micro-plastics have, I'm sure over time we'll discover issues. But, where we stand today we know that we have a clear and present danger from the fishing gear.

tire particulate is known to be toxic, up to levels that are lethal to wildlife in roadside streams

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abd6951

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00456...

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#58

Post by julianlam »

causality0 wrote: post #55
epistasis wrote: post #24

To place this in context, it's 50,000 tons/year of fishing waste, versus 200,000 tons/year of microplastics from car tires: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/14/car-tyre... Further, microplastics enter the ecosystem far easier than the bulky big plastic from fishing gear, so the tire microplastics should be far more concerning to people. It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. Try to live a…

It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. It's really weird how trucks get a pass from people who don't give cars a pass. If tire wear is proportional to road wear, the majority of tire-originating microplastics is from semi trucks, not commuter sedans.

That's a whataboutism. Many countries cannot survive without long haul trucking.

Many individuals can survive without a car given the right municipal commitment.

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#59

Post by Waterluvian »

julianlam wrote: post #58
causality0 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really weird how cars get a pass for so much. It's really weird how trucks get a pass from people who don't give cars a pass. If tire wear is proportional to road wear, the majority of tire-originating microplastics is from semi trucks, not commuter sedans.

That's a whataboutism. Many countries cannot survive without long haul trucking. Many individuals can survive without a car given the right municipal commitment.

Isn’t that flawed logic? If you’re proposing that one of these issues can be fixed with more infrastructure, then couldn’t either? Rail is nice.

Re: Fishing gear accounts for an alarming amount of plastic in oceans (2021)

#60

Post by julianlam »

Waterluvian wrote: post #59
julianlam wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a whataboutism. Many countries cannot survive without long haul trucking. Many individuals can survive without a car given the right municipal commitment.

Isn’t that flawed logic? If you’re proposing that one of these issues can be fixed with more infrastructure, then couldn’t either? Rail is nice.

Sure! Rail is nice, when the volume permits it.

How would we supply the supermarket, though? A rail line would be unfeasible.

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