There are a few ways a species can be removed from the endangered species list. Scientists can discover different information that changes their assessment of the species. Or, policies enacted to protect the species could work, and population numbers rise to the point the species is no longer considered endangered. That is the best-case scenario.
A species can also be removed because they are extinct in the wild. That is the worst-case scenario.
In a new proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service, 23 species are now facing that worst-case scenario. The proposal recommends taking almost two dozen species off of the endangered and threatened species list. The fact is a species cannot be endangered if it no longer exists on the planet.
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The list consists of multiple birds, including the bridled white-eye and the ivory-billed woodpecker, and a number of freshwater bivalves. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, freshwater species are going extinct at a higher rate than terrestrial or marine species, with one third of all freshwater species facing extinction. They’re primarily threatened by habitat loss, invasive species, climate change and more.
Here are a few of the aquatic species mentioned in the proposal:
Green blossom (pearly mussel) (Epioblasma torulosa gubernaculum): This freshwater mussel was originally listed as endangered in 1976 and was threatened largely due to habitat destruction. Originally found in tributaries of the Tennessee River, the green blossom has not be seen since 1982.
San Marcos Gambusia (Gambusia georgei): This small freshwater fish was found in the San Marcos River in Texas and greatly affected by pollution, habitat degradation and increasing drought. No individuals have been seen in the wild since 1983, and despite captive breeding efforts, none have survived in captivity since the mid-1980s.
Scioto madtom (Noturus trautmani): A small catfish found in Ohio, only 18 were ever collected from the wild. Although scientists aren’t certain of the cause of its population decline, they suspect it was because of habitat disruption, agricultural runoff and, potentially, competition with another species of madtom. No Scioto madtoms have been seen since 1957.
Although no marine species were included on the proposal, the list indicates ongoing threats to all species. These are only species that we have research to support their discovery and subsequent loss—it’s especially harrowing to think of all the plants and animals that might be approaching extinction without our knowledge!
This is a momentous week for Congress, if they want it to be.Several deadlines are looming for our federal representatives and, if they fail to take action, the consequences will be dire. People around the country will face job furloughs. States, cities, and towns will miss out on vital opportunities to invest in critical infrastructure. Communities recovering from wildfires and hurricanes will go without needed resources. And we will continue to struggle with the harsh realities of the climate crisis.
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Congress can avert this crisis. And we can make a difference. How? Tell Congress that inaction is unacceptable and urge them to support these three critical measures in order to safeguard everyone who relies on a healthy ocean—and that is every single one of us, whether we live on the beach or hours from the shore.
1. Congress must pass a full year of funding bills or a continuing resolution to keep our government working for us.
The end of the federal government’s fiscal year falls on Thursday, September 30, 2021. Congress has failed to pass either full-year funding bills or a continuing resolution (CR) that is essential to keep our government functioning. To be clear, the latter is a band-aid, and the responsible thing for Congress to do is to pass full-year funding bills. We know that a government shutdown has disastrous consequences. Thousands of federal employees will not be paid. Critical ocean, weather and climate data and forecasting—right in the middle of hurricane season—will be interrupted. Access to data and ongoing research will be suspended. The impact on our lives will be far-reaching.
How you can help: Call or write to your senator and representative. Tell them that shutting down the government is irresponsible and completely preventable.
2. Congress must pass the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Earlier this summer, the Senate passed this bipartisan legislation that provides $1.2 trillion for investment in traditional infrastructure programs, including roads, highways, bridges and ports. This bill incorporates funding for many programs that help our ocean and communities along the coast, with over $2 billion for investments in ports, including funding for projects to transition us to zero-emission ports and shipping and nearly $1 billion for coastal restoration and resilience projects. The bill was widely supported by Senate Republicans, Independents and Democrats. If passed, it will jump-start the economy and create jobs. In addition, it will significantly help build back the infrastructure we all depend on to go to work, take our kids to school and enjoy the special places in our beautiful country.
How you can help: Call or write to your representative. Tell them that they must pass the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
3. Congress must act on climate and pass the Build Back Better Act.
Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet. In the past year alone, we have seen extreme weather events like snowstorms in Texas, raging mega-wildfires in the West and super-charged hurricanes. The Build Back Better Act could provide historic funding to stem the climate crisis, restore coastal ecosystems, reduce air and water pollution, invest in clean energy and reduce plastic production, all while creating significant job opportunities. This package could possibly be the biggest investment in programs that benefit everyday Americans since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. It must be passed to create a more sustainable future for our nation.
How you can help: Call or write to your senator and representative. Tell them to support the Build Back Better Act to protect what you love now and for the future.
What if Congress does not take action?
People across the country will suffer. Government services will shut down. Our already vulnerable infrastructure will continue crumbling. And we will continue to experience the catastrophic impacts from a changing climate.
In Florida, water quality would continue to worsen and communities facing the threat of an extreme hurricane would have to prepare for the loss of life and property with limited resources.
In Maine, fishing, shell fishing and lobstering communities would face losses as the ocean becomes hotter and more acidic, threatening a way of life that has sustained the area for centuries.
And in California, port communities would be condemned to live with extreme levels of air pollution when there is legislation on the table that could provide the resources to jump start our transition cleaner ports that emit less pollution.
Here in Anchorage, Alaska, the leaves are changing color, frost is on the ground and there’s new snow covering the mountain slopes. Fall has arrived, and winter won’t be too far behind.
In the Arctic Ocean, the summer sea ice minimum is an important milestone during this seasonal transition.
The sea ice minimum occurs when the extent of sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean reaches its lowest point for the year. Put another way, it’s the end of the summer melt season. After the minimum, ice extent will grow as open water begins to re-freeze ahead of the coming winter.
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This past summer was relatively cool and stormy, which limited the loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic. As a result, this year’s sea ice minimum left the Arctic Ocean with a higher-than-usual amount of ice coverage when compared to the last fifteen years. Since 2007, only 2009, 2013 and 2014 had more ice at the end of the melt season.
But don’t be fooled: the fifteen lowest Arctic sea ice minimums have all occurred in the last fifteen years, and this year’s minimum sea ice extent is still low by historical standards. In fact, it’s nearly 1.5 million square kilometers below the 1981-2010 average. That’s equivalent to the combined size of Texas, California and Montana. In other words, there’s a lot less sea ice than there used to be.
What’s more, despite the relatively cool temperatures this summer, this year’s Arctic sea ice contained some of the lowest amounts of multiyear sea ice ever recorded. The area covered by multiyear sea ice was roughly 3 million square kilometers less than what it used to be in the early 1980s. Less multiyear sea ice translates to an icepack that’s more vulnerable to additional melting.
Why do we care about Arctic sea ice, anyway? For one thing, sea ice is a vital component of the Arctic marine ecosystem. Indigenous peoples who live along the coast of the Arctic Ocean use sea ice as a platform for hunting and fishing. Arctic wildlife like walruses, polar bears and ice-dependent seals use sea ice to rest, hunt, breed and rear their young. Sea ice is also critical to the formation of ice algae and phytoplankton, which form the base of the food web. In addition, changes in Arctic sea ice may affect weather patterns in the northern hemisphere and even global ocean circulation.
The Arctic is warming three times faster than the world as a whole.
For many years, Arctic sea ice has been on a downward trend, diminishing in extent, age, thickness and volume. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the summer melt season in the Arctic is now 38 days longer than it was in 1979. Unless and until we get a handle on climate change, these trends are likely to continue.
But you can help turn the tide. One way to do that is to tell the Coast Guard to lead the way on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from ship traffic at the International Maritime Organization and to better prepare for climate-related changes here at home. The comment period closes October 6, so take action now!
Atxidax is the Aleut word for Pacific cod, and it translates to “the fish that stops.” Alaska Native people have stewarded and harvested Pacific cod in Alaskan waters for over 4500 years, and Pacific cod continues to be a key cultural and food security resource today. Pacific cod also support economically important fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska, where the commercial Pacific cod fishery is valued at over $103 million and accounts for roughly one third of the groundfish harvest value in the region.
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Climate change and an associated marine heatwave in the Gulf of Alaska (“the blob”) brought this productive fishery system crashing down around fishermen and communities in recent years. From 2014 to 2016, the northeast Pacific experienced the greatest marine heatwave recorded since 1880. The ecosystem was stressed, and Pacific cod’s response to the severe heat was rapid and extreme. From 2015 to 2017, Pacific cod abundance declined by over 70%. In 2019, officials declared an emergency disaster and in 2020, closed the directed federal fishery for Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod.
Gulf of Alaska communities were left reeling to find alternate sources of income to sustain their livelihoods.
One Gulf of Alaska cod fishermen noted:
“[This marine heatwave event] felt different than the standard boom/bust cycle that Pacific cod go through. It felt different in that it was more extreme, going from a high high to a very low low. [We] could not catch enough cod to pay for fuel.”
“Management felt one step behind. Not enough quota when needed and then a bit slow to slow down the fishery.”
The story of Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska is part of a much larger story about the need to prepare fisheries—and adapt our management system—for climate change. It also highlights that there is not time to wait when it comes to making our fisheries ready for climate change. The impacts of climate change are happening real-time.
The good news is that we have a lot of information we can use to take action now. NOAA Fisheries, the federal agency tasked with being the steward of our nation’s fishery resources, and some of the eight regional councils that manage fisheries have acknowledged the need to make changes to management to deal with climate change.
But what does taking action actually look like?
Making fisheries climate-ready won’t involve a single silver bullet solution. Right now, managers need to do more to bring climate information to the table and, most importantly, they need to use it to change how they manage. They can also work to put more proactive measures in place that allow them to respond effectively to events like marine heatwaves. And when things are less certain or signs point to trouble ahead, managers need to act with precaution.
At the same time, we should continue to improve our understanding of the impacts of climate change on fish and the ecosystem by doing more research, expanding surveys, including Traditional Knowledge and improving the methods and tools. It’s a sign of the challenges ahead that a fishery as data-rich as Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod is struggling to navigate the new waters after the marine heatwave event.
Our marine ecosystem and fisheries are at a crossroads. For fisheries to survive the challenges of climate change, we need more research to understand how they will respond to changing ocean conditions. Then we need to implement robust, adaptive policies that tackle these problems head-on. Although some regional management councils are making progress on climate-ready fisheries policies, the example of Pacific cod highlights the need for national attention to this pressing issue.
When we think of our ocean’s biggest catastrophes, we tend to focus on specific events.
I remember watching in horror as oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP Deepwater Horizon, just two decades after the catastrophic Exxon Valdez oil spill spread across Prince William Sound in Alaska. In the aftermath of those disasters, we mourned the human lives lost and the impacts to animals and coastal communities, started arduous cleanup efforts that continue today and worked to hold the two companies—BP and Exxon—financially and morally accountable for the damage.
As we acknowledge, respond to and remember catastrophic events like the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, we must also address another spill that is happening every day, right in front of our eyes: plastic pollution.
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Every year, 11 million metric tons of plastics enter our ocean. Nearly all of these plastics are made from fossil fuels including crude oil, natural gas liquids and coal. The crude oil needed to make that much plastic is over 800 timesmore than the amount spilled during the Exxon Valdez disaster [1].
So, the plastics that escape to our ocean are like a slow motion oil spill that is happening every day, all around the world.
This spill is a pervasive threat to ocean life and coastal communities. Plastic can be easily mistaken by wildlife for food, and it has been found in more than half of all seabirds and all species of sea turtles. Filter feeders like whale sharks can ingest microplastics, or very small pieces of plastic, as they filter the surrounding water for food. And emerging research shows that microplastics affect photosynthesis, growth and reproduction for phytoplankton and zooplankton. These tiny organisms perform a critically important service for the climate: like trees, they uptake carbon, helping the ocean absorb one third of our greenhouse gas emissions.
Ocean plastics, such as those collected by our International Coastal Cleanup partners last week on beaches and waterways around the world, are a product of the fossil fuel industry that is driving climate change. The greenhouse gas emissions from the plastics sector are about 2 gigatons, equivalent to the emissions from 370 million passenger cars. Also, both fossil fuel and plastic production create significant air and water pollution with severe health consequences for local communities.
There is a surge of investment in new plastic production right now. As the fossil fuel industry sees its future shrink in energy and transportation fuels, it is banking on growth in plastics to make up the difference. If that growth occurs, we will continue to rely on and invest in fossil fuel infrastructure at a time when we need a rapid transition to a clean energy economy to ensure a livable planet and healthy ocean.
We must confront skyrocketing plastic production or climate change and plastic pollution will both get worse.
The most direct way to reduce CO2 emissions, keep plastic out of the ocean, and ensure healthy, livable communities is to prevent this massive new wave of fossil-fueled plastic production and use.
Congress is working on legislation right now that goes to the heart of this problem: repealing the fossil fuel tax breaks that make new plastic dangerously cheap and enable new oil and gas drilling, while providing incentives for clean, renewable energy production.
[1] The Exxon Valdez disaster released about 11 million gallons of oil into the ocean. It takes about 0.4 gallons of crude oil to make one pound of plastic, which means that 11 million metric tons of plastic equates to approximately 9.7 trillion gallons of oil.
We are in the midst of an unprecedented opportunity to accelerate the decarbonization of the shipping industry. Over the next few months, several international and national discussions on how to address the causes and impacts of climate breakdown will take place. Closest to home, this includes the negotiations in the U.S. Congress over financing the country’s most ambitious climate agenda to date. Underpinning these processes is the sense of urgency from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) most recent report, which made it clear that time has run out for incremental approaches to zeroing out greenhouse gas emissions.
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It is within this context that Ocean Conservancy releases Zero-Carbon for Shipping: Sailing Carbon-free along North America’s West Coast. The report presents case studies of five ports along the west coast of North America that demonstrate how strategic investments and initiatives can create a zero-carbon shipping corridor that would leverage the ports’ combined influence to reshape the industry.
Shipping, Fuels and Ports
As the backbone of the supply chain, global shipping moves 90% of the world’s goods from producers to consumers. It also churns out around 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide—equal to Germany’s emissions—and other toxic pollutants into the atmosphere every year. If nothing is done to clean up shipping, its carbon emissions are projected to jump by almost 130% by 2050.
We urgently need to replace the fossil fuels used by most large vessels with zero-carbon green fuels, like hydrogen and ammonia produced with electricity entirely from renewable sources. These “electrofuels” will not only cut emissions from shipping but can also be used for other highly polluting industries. Getting to this stage means we need to build or retrofit ships to run on these fuels and invest in the necessary port infrastructure to serve these vessels while reducing port emissions and pollution.
Bustling maritime ports are at the heart of domestic and international shipping, but they also are often fossil-fueled pollution hotspots. Belching carbon dioxide and other noxious chemicals, heavy equipment and trucks service vessels and transport cargo, and vessels idle at berth to refuel or while waiting to dock. (This week alone, a record-breaking 60+ ships are waiting to dock at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.) Ports are often in working-class communities of color where the pollution they generate results in devastating health and economic impacts. These consequences overwhelmingly affect those already suffering from poverty, racial and other forms of discrimination as well as intersecting forms of marginalization and economic insecurity.
This situation isn’t inevitable. Zero Carbon for Shipping shows that early actions to decarbonize port operations and support the development, production and delivery of zero-carbon fuels can simultaneously help transition local economies to a strong, sustainable future; enhance opportunities and conditions for people and communities; and leverage change throughout the industry.
Each of the five ports studied would bring unique characteristics and comparative advantages to a zero-carbon shipping corridor. The Port of Los Angeles, for instance, is an ideal model of a busy, urban port where the high volume of vessel traffic provides rich opportunity for a transition to zero-carbon fuels. It is already a leader in taking decarbonization measures in both its operations and the fleet it serves, having reduced operations emissions over 50%. The Port of Los Angeles has ongoing collaborations, including initiatives with ports in Mexico, China and the Panama Canal. These partnerships can provide momentum for deploying zero-carbon fuels at the port and renewable energy either at the port or further inland and leverage for decarbonizing the shipping fleet.
Looking at the other cases, Oakland’s outstanding potential for renewable electricity generation can support a green hydrogen economy beyond the shipping industry, and Tacoma can enable zero-carbon fuel adoption while decarbonizing local passenger transport. By investing in producing and supplying electrofuels, Vancouver can help replace the revenue and jobs lost from expected lower demand for its coal exports. Finally, Unalaska’s unique combination of untapped renewable energy resources and local needs can give birth to complete electrofuel supply chains and even circular economies.
In each case, a transition to zero-carbon fuels and other approaches to decarbonization creates opportunities to prepare the workforce for the shift towards green, sustainability-related jobs. An example comes from a forthcoming University of California Berkeley study showing that investing $18.5 billion to electrify U.S. ports could create over 300,000 jobs over the next 10 years.
On the Brink of Major Opportunities
A number of dialogues and processes focusing on the global response to the climate crisis are occurring right now—with increasing energy behind decarbonizing the shipping sector. In the U.S., Congress is debating the budget reconciliation and infrastructure bills, which include several billion dollars for reducing emissions at ports and developing low- or no-carbon fuels. On the global stage, this week the U.N. General Assembly will spotlight climate change as New York City Climate Week runs concurrently. In October and November, countries will detail their plans to limit global warming at COP 26 in Glasgow, and the International Maritime Organization will meet to discuss decarbonizing shipping.
Zero-Carbon for Shipping explores how early actions to develop and promote zero-carbon fueling infrastructure along critical trade routes can open opportunities to drive the change across the shipping industry. We call on advocates and policy makers to join us in using the examples and analysis in the report in these largely political discussions to make the case for strategic investments that will put us on the path to a sustainable and just world.
Last week I had the privilege of joining former Vice President Al Gore in conversation to talk about our ocean and climate change. I’ve never felt more inspired and energized to solve the climate crisis. Staring down climate change is hard, and “climate grief” is real for many of us. But for 40 years, Vice President Gore has led the charge to tackle the biggest environmental threat to the planet, and his enthusiasm and can-do attitude continue to grow—and are infectious. He and I agreed the ocean is a critical part of tackling the climate crisis.
Here are some of my reflections on our conversation:
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What we are experiencing is not normal
Last summer, my family and I stayed indoors in Portland, Oregon, for a week as wildfires burned across the Pacific Northwest, driving our air quality down to the worst in the world. Long predicted by scientists —and compellingly presented by Mr. Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth 15 years ago—extreme and increasingly deadly weather has come to be a regular occurrence. Nearly one in three people in the U.S. experienced a weather disaster in just the last three months. Only two weeks ago, Hurricane Ida brought devastating impacts to the Gulf Coast and unprecedented flooding to New York City and New Jersey, supercharged by climate-driven ocean warming in the Gulf of Mexico.
Climate change and plastics are intrinsically linked
Plastics are widely understood as a threat to the ocean, but what few recognize is that plastics are also a threat to the climate. Most plastics are made of fossil fuels, and their production releases large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Plastics now provide a growing investment opportunity for the faltering fossil fuel industry as demand for fossil fuels declines and demand for renewable energy grows. To counter this, Ocean Conservancy is advocating for removal of the huge taxpayer subsidies that are propping up fossil fuels and slowing the transition to a low carbon future and a healthier ocean. This is part of the systemic change we need to make. As Vice President Gore said, “Yes, we should recycle—like we should change to better light bulbs—but as important as that is to do, it’s even more important to change the laws, treaties and subsidies that allow the continued production of fossil fuels.”
Environmental Justice must be centered in the climate fight
The climate crisis is the most important issue of our lifetimes and for future generations, but we cannot solve this crisis without directly addressing the way it affects marginalized people, including Black, Indigenous and other communities of color. Racial minorities bear a disproportionate burden of negative health and environmental impacts of climate change. For example, 13% of Black children have asthma compared to 7% for white children. “More than 1 million African-Americans live in areas where toxic air pollution from natural gas facilities is so high that the cancer risk from this industry exceeds EPA levels of concern,” said Vice President Gore, who then asked the question: “How can this be tolerated by people who are in pursuit of a more perfect union, in a country supposedly uplifted by the values of justice?”
Our call to action
As we look toward the upcoming meeting of world leaders at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow in November, we must keep the pressure on participating countries—especially the United States—to do more. For the ocean to continue to provide the many benefits that humanity depends upon, we need to experience a transformational change away from fossil fuels over the next decade. What was “inconvenient” 15 years ago has now become grave. This is the time to “go big” to implement radical change; incremental change is no longer sufficient.
We can move forward, inspired by Vice President Gore’s relentless and tireless focus on climate change and the inspiration he has provided to countless people around the globe, including me. The world is a better place because of Al Gore’s courage and well-informed hope, a combination of traits that is both rare and essential.
I am deeply honored to have had this conversation with Vice President Gore.
Now it is time for all of us to renew our commitment to our community, our ocean, our planet and each other—and take action for a better tomorrow.
Last month, the U.S. Coast Guard icebreakerHealyleft Seward, Alaska to start an Arctic voyage through the famed Northwest Passage, a sea route that winds among islands north of mainland Canada and connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.
As we wrote in anearlier blog, thewarming climate has reduced the extent and thickness of summertime sea, making it easier for vessels to travel through these Arctic waters.
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Shortly beforeHealyleft Seward, I was fortunate to host a Zoom chat with tworetired Coast Guard officials—bothexperts on maritime Arctic issues—aboutHealy’s trip and some of the most pressing issues confronting the maritime Arctic today:
Roger Rufe, Vice Admiral, U.S. Coast Guard (retired):During a career in the U.S. Coast Guard that spanned more than three decades, Roger Rufe served as a captain of five Coast Guard cutters. He also commanded the 17thCoast Guard District in Alaska, overseeing operations in the U.S. Arctic.AfterhisCoast Guardcareer, Rogerserved asPresident andCEO of Ocean Conservancy.Currently, Roger is a fellow at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy’s Center for Arctic Study and Policy.
Lawson Brigham, Captain, U.S. Coast Guard (retired):In the course of his career with the Coast Guard, Lawson Brigham commanded four cutters, including the heavy icebreaker Polar Sea on missions in the Arctic and Antarctic. Lawson chaired the Arctic Council’s Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment from 2004 to 2009. Like Roger, Lawson is a fellow at the Coast Guard Academy’s Center for Arctic Study and Policy.
You can learn more by watching our video where Roger and Lawson explain what Healy is doing in Arctic waters, discuss how climate change is affecting the region and the Indigenous peoples who live there, describe how Arctic sea ice is changing and talk about some of the other issues affecting the region.
In just a few days on September 18, hundreds of thousands of concerned citizen scientists will turn out to clean up their local beach or waterway during the International Coastal Cleanup (ICC). Ocean Conservancy has compiled the data collected during this global volunteer effort on behalf of ocean health since the ICC’s start in 1986. Now, a new collaboration between Ocean Conservancy, PADI AWARE Foundation and scientists at CSIRO has resulted in the first global map of plastic hotspots. We now have new insights into how all of us can contribute to ocean plastic solutions.
Published in the journal Global Environmental Change, this research combined information from 22,508 ICC beach and land cleanups across 116 countries from 2011-2017 with 7,290 PADI AWARE underwater cleanups across 118 countries from 2011-2018. PADI AWARE is a long-standing member of Ocean Conservancy’s Trash Free Seas Alliance® and a critical ICC partner through its Dive Against Debris program. Ocean Conservancy has worked closely with CSIRO scientists Drs. Denise Hardesty and Chris Wilcox since we first hosted an international scientific working group on marine debris at University of California Santa Barbara in 2011. Together, our team has produced the largest, most comprehensive scientific evaluation of these marine debris data to date.
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As anyone who has been to the beach knows, some areas are relatively clean while others have large amounts of trash and other debris. Our analysis shows that hotspots (defined as areas in the top 20% of debris density) are not just clustered in one country or one part of the world; they occur in nearly every country and region. With considerable variation at small spatial scales, debris touches all ocean areas, including underwater habitats offshore of beaches and waterways. These patterns of local aggregation appear to be the result of high local debris inputs into areas with limited water circulation.
ICC and Dive Against Debris volunteers catalog a vast array of debris items, from plastic bottles to construction materials.
Using these item-specific data and sophisticated statistical analysis, our team uncovered a number of interesting patterns. Cigarette butts are almost always the most commonly found ICC item, but our study revealed that hotspots for these items were clustered in developed countries like the U.S., Canada and southern Europe. In contrast, plastic bottles were most common in the tropics, where costs and logistics in island nations can limit waste collection and recycling infrastructure compared to other areas. With long coastlines relative to land area, these regions often see increased plastic pollution flowing to the sea during the rainy season. Plastic bagswere most common in Central/South America, Africa and south/southeast Asia, while food wrappers were most common in the Philippines, where five of the top 10 hotspots for this item were located. These scientific conclusions are consistent with our on-the-ground experience over the last decade where we have seen firsthand that items like food wrappers and single-serve sachet packaging, with no post-consumer market value, are disposed of in large numbers without sufficient waste management infrastructure.
These new findings are consistent with the call for a fundamental change in our relationship with plastic. This change is needed now to head off an even larger crisis of ocean plastic pollution in the future. Many of the items cataloged by ICC volunteers have little to no economic value after their use. Policy mechanisms designed to increase the value of plastic would act to incentivize their collection, recycling and reuse. Mandating the use of post-consumer recycled plastic content in new products would also help create market demand for investments in recycling infrastructure, diversion of waste plastic from landfills or incineration and reduction in the need for new, virgin plastic resin.
But we can’t only recycle ourselves out of the problem.
Additionally, we must reduce overall plastic production and use by banning or avoiding those products and materials we can simply live without. National and local governments need to advance policies that accelerate these types of approaches and ensure the plastic industry takes greater responsibility for the plastics from which they profit (like the Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act under consideration in the U.S.). Data from the International Coastal Cleanup and Dive Against Debris—and the kind of analysis in our new publication—can act as a baseline from which to monitor the effectiveness of these and other policy interventions.
As we approach our 36th year of Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup, we want to thank the millions of citizen scientists who completed the tens of thousands of cleanups worldwide that provided the data upon which our new study is founded. Keeping our ocean clean and healthy is a global effort whose success is dependent on each and every participant. On behalf of all of us at Ocean Conservancy, we invite you to safely #CollectAndConnect this Saturday, September 18. Learn more about how you can be part of this global citizen science effort to better inform what we can all do to contribute to an ocean free of plastic pollution.
This weekend we will join volunteers around the world who are cleaning up their neighborhoods, beaches and local waterways. Doing a cleanup is always an eye-opening activity where you are up close and personal, seeing the amount and impact of trash in the places we call home. You see items you recognize from your everyday life like straws or plastic cutlery littering the natural spaces you care about. It can change the way you use plastic in your homes and lead to a deeper commitment to the ocean.
Of these unrecyclable items, roughly half were food related. This includes takeout containers, cup lids, plastic cutlery and more. Takeout has increased during the pandemic, and many people don’t know how to dispose of those containers. Our report found 71% of Americans ordered takeout or delivery between one to three times a week, but less than half could correctly identify which types of food ware items could be recycled.
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Much of our takeout food comes in containers that are not recyclable. For instance, 46% of Americans reported receiving their takeout in expanded polystyrene (foam) clamshell containers and 39% got them with clear plastic lids and black plastic bottoms. Neither of these items is recyclable in the majority of communities across the country, but many Americans believe they are, understandably so—they’re all forms of plastics and all have the classic “chasing arrows” symbol on them.
However, containers with clear plastic lids and black plastic bottoms are problematic. Waste sorting systems cannot recognize the color of black plastic, rendering them generally unrecyclable. Yet 63% of Americans believed that the black plastics could be recycled. Polystyrene (foam) clamshell containers, long a source of environmental concern because of difficulties in breaking them down, were believed by 33% of Americans to be recyclable.
These issues are not the fault of the people who receive these containers. Most of us rely on the “chasing arrows” label on our packaging to help us make those decisions. However, many of the products that feature this symbol aren’t recyclable in our local communities, making it confusing for people to sort out what goes into the recycle bin. And this confusion can cause a big problem for our ocean. It means we’re producing a lot of waste that isn’t being properly discarded.
One solution is clear: To stop the flow of plastics entering our waters, we need to reduce the amount of single-use plastic being produced. But, we also need to make sure the plastic waste we do produce isn’t destined for landfills or our ocean.
Luckily, there are solutions and many people—like you and all of us at Ocean Conservancy—who want change. One in three Americans surveyed would be willing to subscribe to a local low-cost reusable takeout-container return program. There is large support for bans of single-use items, and 60% Americans would support local ordinances that improve recyclability standards for takeout containers. Together, we can work to ensure that when we order delicious takeout food it comes without plastic that can pollute our ocean.
You can take action now to drastically improve recycling systems in the U.S., as only dramatic improvements will move us towards the more circular economy that our ocean needs. First and foremost, we need aggressive recycled content standards in place to incentivize more and improved recycling. By requiring manufacturers to include more recycled materials in their products, we can drive demand for materials that actually can be recycled. You can help make this possible by showing your support for the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act. This important legislation includes a mandate for plastic producers to use more recycled materials in their products. Together, we can urge governments and corporations to step up to truly stem the tide of plastics into our ocean.
The flamingo tongue snail (Cyphoma gibbosum) is a strange-looking little critter with an even stranger name. Whether you’ve seen a flamingo tongue in person or have never heard of it in your life, here are some fun facts about this brightly-colored invertebrate.
See more wonderful ocean animals!
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What does a flamingo tongue snail look like?
Flamingo tongues are small—only growing about an inch long—so if you swim by too quickly you might miss them. Although they’re tiny, their coloring makes a big statement. Flamingo tongues have vibrant orange and yellow coloring with thin black rings covering their bodies. It’s almost like they were inspired by leopard spots and added their own invertebrate flair. Under their colorful exteriors, they have a white or tan colored shell.
Flamingo tongue snails are a relatively common sight on reefs in the western Atlantic and Caribbean from just below the surface to about 100 feet deep. They like to eat the polyps of soft corals like sea fans, sea whips and other gorgonians. They use a special appendage called a radula to scrape away soft tissues of the coral. The radula, which resembles a long ribbon with teeth, is exclusively found in all mollusks except for bivalves like clams. Although they eat live coral, do not fear—flamingo tongues won’t graze too much on one coral colony, and the polyps regrow after they leave.
Flamingo tongue snails have a number of predators on the reef, including larger reef fish and lobsters. They protect themselves by absorbing toxins consumed from soft corals and becoming toxic themselves. Like many animals (looking at you, nudibranchs!) flamingo tongues’ bright colors warn other predators to stay away. Healthy predator populations are part of a well-balanced reef: a 2007 study used cages to keep large fish and invertebrates off parts of the Florida Keys reefs. When there were no predators, the amount of flamingo tongue snails increased 19-fold! More flamingo tongues meant increased munching on the soft corals, resulting in eight times the amount of damage on gorgonian corals.
If you’re headed to the Western Atlantic of Caribbean reefs anytime soon, keep a look out for these bright and captivating invertebrates. They’re an important part of a healthy, balanced coral reef ecosystem.
For many of us, the story of trash ends when we put our trash out on the curb on pickup days. For Urban Ocean and the cities they partner with, it is just the beginning. Many cities around the world struggle to create systems to manage their waste, and that can sometimes mean that trash ends up as pollution in our ocean. The Urban Ocean program works with cities to find opportunities to better manage their trash and new solutions to ensure trash isn’t created to begin with.
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In June 2020 Ocean Conservancy and our partners, The Circulate Initiative and Resilient Cities Network, announced the first cohort of learning cities to participate in our Urban Ocean program: Can Tho, Vietnam; Melaka, Malaysia; Semarang, Indonesia; Pune, India; and Panama City, Panama. These cities are connected to a vast network of community leaders, academics, and business leaders who are taking action to prevent plastic pollution from entering our ocean. This collaboration helps cities tackle ocean plastic pollution while advancing other city priorities like public health and job creation.
Urban Ocean has worked with all of these cities to conduct a series of assessments to build a snapshot of the trash and plastics in each city. This is called the Circularity Assessment Protocol (CAP) and was developed by Dr. Jenna Jambeck and her team at the University of Georgia (UGA)’s Circularity Informatics Lab. It explores questions like what items are commonly purchased in the city and how are they packaged? Where and how are these items used? What plastic alternatives are available and how widespread are they? What ends up as litter or trash and why?
Getting answers to these questions was no easy feat during the pandemic. Travel restrictions meant that UGA’s team was unable to conduct their research in person and instead had to find and remotely train local partners to conduct it. The process of sampling and conducting interviews was difficult because many shops and restaurants were closed. Nonetheless, we managed to complete all five CAPs, thanks to the incredible work and perseverance of our partners.
Urban Ocean released the results in a webinar last week. Some of the most interesting findings were:
Consistently, the most common littered items were tobacco products (mainly cigarettes) or food packaging products like food wrappers, straws, utensils and to-go containers. Notably, this reflects data collected by volunteers with Ocean Conservancy’s annual International Coastal Cleanup, or ICC. Cigarette butts have topped the list of items found on beaches and waterways worldwide almost every single year since its founding in 1986 . That changed in 2019 when they were displaced for the first time ever by food wrappers.
Interviewees are interested in community-awareness campaigns about how to properly sort and handle waste in their city.
Several of the cities have small but enthusiastic groups that support refill and reuse stations, bulk stores, alternative delivery of products and the like, which should be cultivated and invested in to avoid more waste.
There is demand for programs that attract young and tech-savvy locals into the waste sector, as well as demand for new technology that can support the recycling and trash collection. For example, at the CAP launch event Pune proudly showcased its “sustainathon” as a way to crowdsource innovative ideas from college students.
There is a consistent need to increase and optimize infrastructure to maximize collection, transport, sorting and disposal of waste. This can take many forms, including purchasing additional waste collections vehicles or establishing storage space for waste workers to properly sort materials.
But of course the devil—as well as the opportunity!—is in the details. For instance, in Panama City, 68% of top grocery and convenience store items were packaged in some type of plastic film, which is both extremely difficult to recycle and deadly to sea creatures, and just 1% of take-out containers were made of recyclable plastics. In Can Tho, a comparable 83% of all top products from a representative sample of convenience stores were packaged in plastic film, but most to-go products from vendors and restaurants were recyclable .
Understanding the strengths, weakeness and differences among waste management practices in these cities is just the first step. You can learn more about the findings for each specific city here. Next, cities will take these findings and develop plans to improve how they manage plastics and waste. One tool they’ll use is the Opportunity Assessment Tool (OAT) developed by Resilient Cities Network. This will help them identify and develop strategies to address their most pressing needs.
Urban Ocean is also supporting these cities by sharing best practices from around the world. Through support from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Trash Free Seas Alliance® and others, Ocean Conservancy and its Urban Ocean partners have developed a “toolkit” to help these five citiesimprove the way they handle plastics and waste. The toolkit combines all the resources that have been developed this past year, as well as other helpful tools to support municipalities around the globe in their fight to build clean, healthy cities for clean, healthy seas.
Cities have a powerful role to play in creating a trash-and plastics-free future for our ocean. The results of the CAP Assessment show that there is much work to do, but also many solutions and opportunities for action. By improving infrastructure, fueling innovation, and empowering citizens, our Urban Ocean cities are leading the way to a healthier future for all the people who live there and for the ocean.
(ICC). Ocean Conservancy has compiled the data collected during this global volunteer effort on behalf of ocean health since the ICC’s start in 1986. Now, a new collaboration between Ocean Conservancy, 
