Billions of pounds of garbage and contaminants flood into our oceans every year. The compiling evidence of trash that washes onshore, sinks to sea floors and gets consumed by marine life has caused many organizations around the world to campaign for change. Many are fighting to understand how so much waste can be recovered. Most importantly, how we can get rid of it.
Marine pollution “is a combination of chemicals and trash, most of which comes from land sources and is washed or blown into the ocean. This pollution results in damage to the environment, to the health of all organisms, and economic structures worldwide,” writes National Geographic.
According to Ocean CleanUp, around 1000 rivers worldwide are the source of 80% of annual riverine plastic emissions. This ranges from 0.8 to 2.7 million metric tons per year. Furthermore, most of the pollutants we see originate from human littering or non-point source pollution.
Non-point source pollution, as per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is left by “septic tanks, vehicles, farms, livestock ranches and timber harvest areas”. However, point source pollution, often originating from a single source such as waste from damaged factories or water treatment systems, is less common yet devastating.
An Agreement to Restore Marine Habitats
“Urchinomics, Bellona, Bright Tide, SeaForester, Oyster Heaven, and the Sea Ranger Service, have partnered with Nestlé Purina PetCare Europe to help restore 1,500 hectares of marine habitats by 2030,” writes Rocio Álvarez Jiménez at We Are Aquaculture.
The Purina Europe Ocean Restoration Programme begins by researching and creating a measurement framework and an adequate plan to restore other ecosystems in the future.
“We are delighted to launch Purina Europe´s first Ocean Restoration Programme. With marine biodiversity declining dramatically, collective restoration efforts are required,” states Kerstin Schmeiduch, Director of Corporate Communications and Sustainability at Purina Europe.
Oyster Heaven, an organisation that aims to restore oyster reefs, is currently rebuilding missing oyster reefs. This is vital for the production of biodiversity in marine ecosystems. Oyster reefs remove excess nitrogen in water like trees with carbon dioxide in the air. By 2027, Oyster Heaven aims to have filtered 20 billion litres of water per day, see 40 billion more sea creatures, and 100 million more oysters and have managed 200 tonnes of sewage fertiliser every year.
Urchinomics, conversely, is fighting to rid the seafloor of superfluous sea urchins that have stopped the production of kelp forests, turning seafloors desolate. Brian Tsuyoshi Takeda, creator of Urchinomics, released in his LinkedIn profile: “This has the potential to serve as a catalyst and accelerator for significant restorative action that prioritises biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and local communities.”
Global Reef
Amongst the ocean organisations that aim to make a positive impact is Global Reef. In an interview with founder, Piers Baillie, a qualified marine biologist and an award-winning underwater photographer, he states, “Global Reef is a marine research, education and conservation organisation that is based in Thailand. The mission of the organisation is to connect a global audience with the marine world anywhere and everywhere.”
Global Reef has “set up different research projects in Thailand, working in collaboration with the Thai Department of Marine and Coastal Resources… and a number of different educational programmes…both in Thailand and in the UK. These programmes are educating children on coral reef ecosystems, marine ecosystems, and threats to how they can be protected and conserved.”
With this in mind, Global Reef takes VR headsets to schools that display underwater 360-degree camera footage, thus actually taking students to the reef. This programme runs parallel with a scientific dive training programme that allows individuals to gain skills and “engage in underwater research activities”.
The response from schools is “quite amazing”, with children as young as five partaking in diving excursions. Baillie says, “Being able to spark that interest from a young age is something that can have an enormous impact through its exponential growth throughout the ages.”
Baillie states, “Really, the problem which we try to tackle as an organisation, is that the oceans, despite covering over two-thirds of the planet’s surface, they’re very inaccessible, and require time skills or money to be able to access them.”
With a team of scientists that collects and analyses data, Global Reef seeks to apply the research to marine ecosystems. He continues, “[We are] very much looking at making a direct ecological impact to the local area where we’re either increasing the coral cover or diversity and therefore, contributing to the generation of habitats through developing corals developing coral reefs with creating habitable spaces for different organisms as well as a surface for corals to attach to.”
For anyone interested in marine conservation, underwater photography or diving, Global Reef offers two to three-month-long internships, where individuals work on a number of projects for researchers. The only prerequisite? Diving experience. Global Reef responds to every inquiry and welcomes any students “looking to develop career skills, or researchers looking to collect data”.
Global Reef brings conventional and innovative approaches to connect to a global audience. With a plan to move their research to an international scale and “essentially, bring coral reefs to anyone”, join their mission now at Global Reef and connect with them @global_reef.
