Plastic destroying mangrove ecosystem
Estimates suggest that there are more than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269 000 tons, floating in the world's oceans.
PLASTIC is eroding and destroying the ecosystem and adversely affecting animals around the Beachwood Mangroves Nature Reserve. That’s according to the reserve manager, Basil Pather, who said dedicated teams cleaning up the reserve were losing to the deepening tide of litter, particularly plastic litter.
In January this year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said plastic in the oceans, and rivers will outweigh fish pound for pound by 2050. Estimates suggest that there are more than five trillion pieces of plastic, collectively weighing nearly 269 000 tons, floating in the world’s rivers and oceans.
Several clean-ups along Blue Lagoon and in the mangrove reserve itself have shown that more than half of the rubbish collected was made up of plastic bottles, roll-on balls and broken bits of polystyrene. What’s more, the plastic bottles take more than 1 000 years to decompose.
The deterioration of larger plastic fragments, from UV radiation and other forces, creates micro-plastics.
“I think people can’t see their carbon footprint because most of the time the changes to the environment are not something they’d pick up. With the white mangroves, because they have aerial roots, a lot of the plastic gets stuck or caught on the roots, smothering them. We’ve also noticed areas where there used to be crabs are now barren without any activity. It’s hard to measure numbers because the reserve is home to more than a million crabs. The mangroves are important nursery areas for many species of fish, so they are unique and just as important as coral reefs and tropical rain forests.
“Despite regular clean-ups and a net which protects big pieces of plastic floating through the reserve, there is still a large percentage of plastic pieces ending up in the reserve. We’ve also noticed rubbish thrown into the river on the Blue Lagoon side make its way to the reserve. When this plastic decomposes, the smaller pieces – the micro-plastics – are ingested by fish and then fed up the food chain, all the way to humans,” he said.
Pather said educating the future generation was key in fighting the rising tide of littering.
“We have between 150 to 200 pupils visiting the reserve every week. I think our part is to educate them and show them what litter is doing to the environment. They are the future leaders,” he said.
