By Todd Hollett
Newfoundland and Labrador, with over 16,000 km of coastline, has 343 active harbours, the most in the country. Many communities were built around the coast and many residents still rely on the ocean for their livelihoods. Unfortunately, the marine environment faces many daily threats, including those posed by marine debris.
Marine debris, especially plastics, is everywhere from surface to seafloor, even in Arctic Sea ice, with an estimated 8 million tons entering the ocean globally every year, and these numbers are rising. Canada produces an astounding 3 million tons of plastic waste annually and 80% of that plastic is land-based. It was estimated in 2010 that 4.8 to 12.7 million tons had been dumped and would increase to 100 to 200 million tons by 2025. In Newfoundland and Labrador alone 85% of shoreline waste is composed of plastics.
The distribution is very uneven in this province and does not indicate any regional hotspots and Labrador does not have less marine debris, just less accessible areas. There are smaller-scale beaches, called loading beaches, on the island, such as Terrenceville and Arnold’s Cove, that have unusually high plastic accumulation, with other beaches squeaky clean.
Marven Anstey, who has a strong background in aquaculture, recounts that “while travelling through picturesque communities of Fortune Bay East on the Burin Peninsula in the fall of 2008, I become acutely aware of the visual pollution of plastic waste, consisting of an unlikely assortment of drinking and oil containers and a myriad of other clear and coloured plastic thoughtlessly tossed in uncaring fashion, that had accumulated on this particular beach. Out of curiosity and a resolve to determine the constituents of all this pollution, I sauntered along the beach. I noticed that the formerly transparent containers had transformed into opaque faded remnants of their original state through inevitable erosion from wind and wave activity.”
Marvin remembers that everything around him was “decayed into a pathetic mess”.
Marine debris poses severe threats to ecological, social and economic capital by negatively impacting water quality, habitat, recreational and commercial fish stocks, marine navigation, and the natural beauty of the coast. Most plastic waste found in Newfoundland waters originates locally, and evidence of dumping continues. Most of this dumping occurs around wharves, mostly within 20m. Plastic originating here has even been found in the United Kingdom, France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
Marine plastic pollution threatens Newfoundland’s marine life, with 10 humpback and three minke whales becoming entangled in fishing gear annually since 1992. Harbours providing habitat for many commercially important fish continue to be dumping grounds for harmful debris with Fisheries and Oceans Canada indicating that in some harbours it is almost impossible to see the natural bottom because of the layer of garbage. The Harbour Authority in Burin feels that the lack of places to dispose of nets and other fishing debris has contributed to the problem. In response to these concerns, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador introduced an extended producer responsibility program that provides the collection of used oil and glycol filters and containers.
Plastics are classed into two types macropalstics, greater than 5 mm, and microplastics, smaller than 5 mm. Macroplastics are larger items that can kill or impair marine animals, cause entanglements, impact tourism and pose vessel safety risks. Abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear, often called ghost nets, trap and entangle animals, cause habitat degradation, damage active fishing gear and present navigation hazards. Some birds, such as Northern gannets, incorporate derelict fishing gear into their nests which has led to entanglement and strangulation of chicks and adults.
Macroplastics are also detrimental to the province’s only turtle. Leatherback sea turtles migrate here every summer to forage on jellyfish. Entanglement in fishing gear poses the risk of injury and drowning, while ingestion is also a concern as turtles may mistake a floating plastic bag or sheet for prey. Once ingested, the plastic cannot be digested or expelled from the body and simply stays in the turtle’s stomach, filling it and leaving no room for food, leading to starvation and eventual death.
Mr. Anstey’s observations of the opaque containers were the beginnings of microplastics and he realized that “these once useful items may now form a newly added component of ocean water.” Over time, wave action, weather conditions, shorelines and ocean substrates break them into smaller and smaller pieces that are often ingested by mammals, fish, birds and invertebrates, accumulating into the food web with consequences to wildlife and human health. At present the average density of plastics in the province’s surface water is 5,208 pieces per square kilometre, much higher than a decade ago. These tiny particles cannot be removed once they enter the ocean. Microplastics aren’t just in the surface water but are eventually colonized by bacteria and algae, sink and are even found at extreme depths.
Microplastics get inside marine animals as they feed and through their gills when they breathe. Particles have been detected in more than 100 marine inhabitants from massive whales to minuscule zooplankton. Of all the species filter-feeding baleen whales and basking sharks appear to be the most affected as they ingest huge amounts of plastics and toxic additives while gorging on plankton. Many additives have similar effects as hormones, impairing fertility and in extreme cases causing males to grow ovaries. Other chemicals are carcinogens causing tumors, and physiological, morphological and psychological damage. Invertebrates such as mussels and crabs have sensitive mucous membranes that are easily damaged and become inflamed due to microplastic ingestion.
Researchers at Memorial University say there are far more microplastics in Newfoundland waters than previously thought and most of it comes from here at home.
“They’re pretty much intact when we find them, if you put plastics in the ocean they shred up pretty fast,” says Max Liboiron, explaining that she has seen a variety of local plastics from fishing gear to kitchen garbage bags inside animal digestive tracts.
When the plastic is eaten, chemicals go into tissues, accumulate, biomagnify and become more concentrated as they move up the food web. A survey of 1000 cod in inshore and offshore waters along the east and south coasts indicates that 2.4%, just over 1 in 150 fish, ingested plastic.
Seabirds also showed signs of significant plastic ingestion with one study indicating the discovery of plastics in the stomachs of dovekies, Northern fulmars, herring gulls, black-backed gulls, black-legged kittiwakes, shearwaters, puffins, thick-billed murre and common murre.
Microplastics are dangerous to humans as well with the most common route into the body through ingestion with food. It’s believed that we ingest as many as 39,000 to 52,000 particles annually. Studies have linked microplastics with rising obesity rates due to reduced lipid digestion, intestinal and digestive issues, metabolic disorders, gut bacteria imbalances, DNA damage, neurotoxicity, cognitive declines, cancers, endocrine disruption, heart disease, decreasing male fertility and embryo developmental issues.
