Feature Destination

Eco-Luxury Boutique Beach Resort Announces Amazing Experiences for Discerning Travelers

Located on the remote east cape of Los Cabos, The White Lodge is a secluded gem offering an eco-wellness retreat that stands alone overlooking the Sea of Cortez. With just 10 luxury, Zen-chic cottages, many with private plunge pools or rooftop patios, White Lodge is the ultimate resort to get away from the daily grind. Read more…

Feature Destination: What You Can Do When Visiting Los Cabos

Los Cabos is an easy-to-reach and welcoming destination that feels wonderfully secluded. Here, you can experience everything from laid-back relaxation to high-adrenaline outdoor adventure to inspirational arts and culture. Get out on the water on a charter boat, and go snorkeling and diving in the “aquarium of the world.” Read more…

Newsroom

Green Fins in Egypt Took a Leap Towards Independence & Being Sustainable

The Reef-World Foundation—the international coordinator of UN Environment Programme’s Green Fins initiative—has successfully trained and certified three new Green Fins trainers from the Green Fins Egypt national team. They are now qualified to train new Green Fins assessors in the country, building capacity for the initiative’s continued expansion in the country. Read more…

How Oil Spills Impact Coastal Communities?

Oil spills are some of the most devastating man-made disasters. We’ve all seen the images and videos of thick black oil infesting our oceans. Chances are, you’ve even seen images of animals and sea life getting impacted by those spills. It’s often difficult to watch. There’s something innately human about recognizing how terrible these spills are and how much damage they can do to our natural world. Read more…

Taking a Deeper Dive into The Plastic Pollution Lifecycle

While images of plastic-strewn beaches are OpenOceans Global’s way of creating awareness of the ocean plastic crisis, another more invisible threat from plastic is emerging: plastic’s contributions to climate change. As coal-fired power plants close and petrochemical infrastructure expands in the U.S. Read more…

Storied Seas: The Names and Tales of Sanctuary Places

We humans like to name things, placing monikers on everything around us—cliffs, coves, bays, anything of geographic significance. We renamed as new cultures evolved from older ones and colonists displaced native peoples, using different names in different languages. Read more…

Celebrate 50 Years of Spectacular National Marine Sanctuaries!

Nearly fifty years ago, a new era of ocean conservation was born by creating a system of national marine sanctuaries. Since then, the National Marine Sanctuary System has grown into a nationwide network of 15 national marine sanctuaries and two marine national monuments. Read more…

SAWFISH NEWS: New Video Provides Guidelines for Interactions with Endangered Sawfish in the United States 

The U.S. Smalltooth Sawfish Recovery team has released a new video titled “RESPECT – RELEASE – REPORT: Guidelines for Interactions with Endangered Sawfish in the United States” to give anglers, divers, and boaters information about what to do if they catch or see an endangered sawfish.  Read more…

Oakland Zoo Assists in PETA’s Largest Animal Rescue Operation from a Roadside Zoo

Oakland Zoo staff made the long drive back to Oakland on October 16, 2022, with a dozen reptiles rescued from Tri-State Zoological Park in Cumberland, Maryland. These reptiles were a part of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) five-day rescue operation. Read more…

2022 U.S. State of the Birds Report Reveals Widespread Losses of Birds in All Habitats

A newly released State of the Birds report for the United States reveals a tale of two trends, one hopeful, one dire. Long-term trends of waterfowl show strong increases where investments in wetland conservation have improved conditions for birds and people. But data show birds in the U.S. are declining overall in every other habitat — forests, grasslands, deserts, and oceans. Read more…

New Guy Harvey Program Boosts Marine Biology Education

The Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation has received a $99,500 grant from The St. Joe Community Foundation to fund professional training for teachers in Bay County in the Florida Panhandle that allows more than 7,500 students in Bay County to benefit from the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation educational curriculum. Read more…

Something’s In The Air: It’s Nano Plastic Pollution

The tiny bits of plastic that wear off bottles, plastic bags, automotive parts and even cosmetics get into the soil and the water supply. They disrupt chemical cycles, throw off ecosystem health and pollute environments both marine and terrestrial. They eventually also get into the air, where they can damage lungs much more effectively. Read more…

Global Warming at Least Doubled The Probability of Extreme Ocean Warming Around Japan

In the past decade, the marginal seas of Japan frequently experienced extremely high sea surface temperatures (SSTs). A new study led by National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) researchers revealed that the increased occurrence frequency of extreme ocean warming events since the 2000s is attributable to global warming due to industrialization. Read more…

Fall Foliage & Solitude: 7 Vacation Ideas

Brisk weather, brightly colored foliage and destinations free from crowds make fall the perfect time to travel. Here are 7 vacation ideas for the weeks ahead, ranging from the mountains of Montana and Nepal to the Galapagos Islands. Read more…

Blind Spots in the Monitoring of Plastic Waste

Whether in drinking water, food, or even in the air: plastic is a global problem – and the full extent of this pollution may go beyond what we know yet. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners from the Netherlands and Australia have reviewed conventional assumptions for the transport of plastic in rivers. Read more…

Plastic Makes Up 81% of Trash Recorded in National Parks

The 5 Gyres Institute and partners reveal findings from Plastic-Free Parks TrashBlitz, a community science project tracking plastic pollution in U.S. national parks. According to data submitted by volunteers, plastic is the most prevalent material found across national parks and federal lands, making up 81 percent of all trash recorded. Read more…

SEVENSEAS Beach Cleanups

In August 2022 CleanUp, we picked up over 80 kilogram of plastic, pieces of glasses, tractor tyre, and fishing nets from the beach in Krabi, Long Beach or Pan Beach. Of course, we would not be able to do it without your support. You can make a tax-deductible donation here to keep our publications and Thailand Cleanup Project afloat.

You can either make a direct financial contribution to SEVENSEAS Media through The Ocean Foundation website or connect us with potential donors by sending an email to  Giacomo Abrusci, our Editor-in-Chief.

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Since 2004, SEVENSEAS Media has fostered an informal and non-partisan platform to promote understanding of key issues and challenges while building partnerships across an increasingly diverse group of marine conservation professionals and students.

Our mission is to promote communication and build partnerships across the global marine community and to identify and address gaps in the community’s work. SEVENSEAS Media achieves this through multimedia promotion and partnerships. The community consists of a diverse and growing group of participants, including non-governmental organizations, government agencies, foundations, bilateral and multilateral agencies, fellowship programs, independent consultants, and academia/students.

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By Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

KIT researchers and partners suspect that much more plastic is transported in flowing waters than previously assumed and are developing new modeling approaches

Whether in drinking water, food, or even in the air: plastic is a global problem – and the full extent of this pollution may go beyond what we know yet. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and partners from the Netherlands and Australia have reviewed conventional assumptions for the transport of plastic in rivers. The actual amount of plastic waste in rivers could be up to 90 percent greater than previously assumed. The new findings should help improve monitoring and remove plastic from water bodies. Publication in Water Research. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2022.119078

Rivers play a key role in the transport of plastic into the environment. “As soon as plastic enters a river, it is transported rapidly and can spread throughout the environment,” says Dr. Daniel Valero from the Institute of Water and River Basin Management at KIT and lead author of a new study on plastic transport. “But, depending on its size and material, plastic can behave very differently. It can sink, be suspended in the water, remain afloat or be stopped by obstacles.” However, current methods for estimating plastic pollution in rivers are mainly based on surface observations. “This is the only way to monitor large rivers from bridges effectively. However, what happens under the water surface has not been sufficiently verified so far,” says Valero.

Plastic particles are transported very differently

Together with his research partners, Valero now investigated the behaviour of over 3,000 particles in the size range from 30 millimetres to larger objects such as plastic cups in flowing waters. In laboratory models, each individual particle was tracked in 3D with millimetre precision using a multi-camera system, whereby the entire water column – from the water surface to the bottom – was recorded. With this experiment, the researchers statistically proved that plastic particles behave very differently depending on where they are located in a river. Plastic that is transported below the water surface behaves as predicted by common models for turbulent flows. “The particles are dispersed like dust in the wind” says Valero. As soon as plastic emerges the water surface, however, the situation changes radically: “On contact with the water surface, the particles are caught by the surface tension like flies in a spider’s web. Then they cannot escape easily.” This adhesive effect is just as relevant for surface transport in rivers as the specific buoyancy of a plastic particle.

Better models for visual monitoring

On the one hand, the results of the experiment show that it is not enough to consider only floating plastic on the surface to estimate the amount of plastic in rivers. “The bias is significant. Suppose the turbulent character of the transport of plastic particles under the water surface is not considered. In that case, the amount of plastic waste in rivers can be underestimated by up to 90 percent,” says Daniel Valero. On the other hand, the results confirm that existing knowledge about the behaviour of particles in turbulent flows is relevant for the transport of plastic in rivers and can help estimate the total amount more realistically. To this end, the researchers have quantified the ratio between concentrations of plastic particles at the water surface and at greater depths with different transport conditions. On this basis, monitoring can still be carried out by visual observation of the water surface and the actual transported quantity can be calculated relatively accurately. In addition, the results can help in a very practical way, namely in developing new approaches for plastic removal: “If you can estimate where the most plastic is, then you also know where a clean-up is most effective,” says Valero. (mhe)

Original publication

Daniel Valero, Biruk S. Belay, Antonio Moreno-Rodenas, Matthias Kramer, Mário J. Franca: The key role of surface tension in transporting and quantifying plastic pollution in rivers. Water Research, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.119078

More information: https://www.klima-umwelt.kit.edu 

About KIT

Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,800 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 22,300 students for responsible social, industry, and science tasks by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

Contributed by Trashblitz

PLASTIC ITEMS MAKE UP 81 PERCENT OF WASTE FOUND ACROSS U.S. NATIONAL PARKS
Results from Community Research Project Underscore Urgent Need to Address Single-Use Plastic in National Parks

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA — The 5 Gyres Institute and partners reveal findings from Plastic-Free Parks TrashBlitz, a community science project tracking plastic pollution in U.S. national parks. According to data submitted by volunteers, plastic is the most prevalent material found across national parks and federal lands, making up 81 percent of all trash recorded.

Food and drink-related items made up the bulk of waste found, comprising 45 percent of total trash recorded. Cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic bottles, bottle caps, and textiles were the most common items found. Repeatedly topping the list of top corporate plastic polluters in the world, Coca-Cola, Nestle, and PepsiCo were among the top 10 brands identified, along with Camel, Marlboro, Nature Valley, Gatorade, Crystal Geyser, Parliament, and Kirkland.

Project partners mobilized volunteers across the country to organize cleanups from July through September and input their findings into the TrashBlitz research platform. More than 500 volunteers participated in cleanups at 44 sites around the country, including national parks and federal lands like urban parks, forests, and monuments managed by the National Park Service. TrashBlitz volunteers also sampled data at Yosemite Facelift, an annual, five-day cleanup event in Yosemite National Park during which 1,300 volunteers collected 14,780 pounds of trash.

The data from Plastic-Free Parks TrashBlitz underscores an urgent need for policy change and legislation that addresses single-use plastic in national parks. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced an order to phase out the sale of single-use plastic on federal lands by 2032, but these results show that the plastic issue requires swifter action. In addition to moving up the 10-year timeline, the National Park Service can implement improvements at parks, like increasing access to refill stations and requiring reusable foodware for on-site dining. 

A bill introduced last year by Representative Mike Quigley would ban the sale and distribution of several top items found during the TrashBlitz project, including single-use plastic bottles, straws, and packaging. If passed, the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act is the quickest way to address single-use plastic pollution in national parks.

“I’ve been lucky enough to visit seven national parks during my time in Congress. Each visit emphasizes the importance of protecting these national treasures from all threats,” said Congressman Quigley. “These visits have also taught me that plastic pollution in our parks causes serious damage to many fragile ecosystems. We must pass the Reducing Waste in National Parks Act to ensure the health and beauty of our national parks for generations to come.”

The full report from Plastic-Free Parks TrashBlitz can be found here.

Nonprofit and brand partners supporting Plastic-Free Parks TrashBlitz include 5 Gyres, Azulita Project, Ban SUP Refill, Beyond Plastics Seattle, Break Free From Plastic, ChicoBag Company, Community Environmental Council, Gnarwhal Coffee Co., Inland Ocean Coalition, Klean Kanteen, MOM’s Organic Market, Natracare, Oceana, Oceanic Global, Oceanic Preservation Society, Plaine Products, Plastic Free Future, Plastic Free July, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Port Arthur Community Action Network (PACAN), prAna, Preserve, ProGrade Digital, Resilient Palisades, Sarama Inc, Shark Stewards, Story of Stuff Project, Surfrider San Francisco, Sway, The Bay Foundation, The Last Plastic Straw, Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Zero Waste Washington.

Quotes from Partners:

“Every piece of trash documented by volunteers is incredibly valuable in helping us understand the plastic pollution trends unique to national parks and federal lands. As a result of the nationwide Plastic-Free Parks TrashBlitz, we have solid data that shows single-use plastic items make up the majority of trash escaping the waste stream and ultimately harming the health of our people, wildlife, and waterways in our most cherished landscapes. We must take immediate action to reduce plastic pollution at its source – by eliminating the sale, distribution, and usage of all single-use disposable plastics and investing in reuse infrastructure and sustainable packaging choices.”

Alison Waliszewski, Policy Director, 5 Gyres Institute

“The recent TrashBlitz report makes the case for speeding up the timeline for which the Department of the Interior has already agreed to stop the sale and distribution of single-use plastic items in our national parks and on federal land. Solutions to plastic pollution exist. Allowing this crisis to continue counters critical efforts to protect our planet. It also disrespects Earth’s original stewards, Indigenous peoples, from which the land used to establish national parks was violently and unjustly stolen. The DOI can and must do better by implementing zero-waste systems and solutions in our national parks and on federal land as soon as possible.”

Jackie Nuñez, Advocacy & Engagement Manager, Plastic Pollution Coalition, and Founder, The Last Plastic Straw

“While the Department of the Interior’s plans to phase out plastic in our national parks has set a clear direction of travel, the results of the TrashBlitz study press home that we must accelerate the timetable. The department needs to work aggressively with park concessionaires to ensure we’re shifting away from the sale of single-use plastics in parks. If we are to tackle the plastics crisis — our national parks must lead the way for how we can model a zero-waste future.” 

Sam Pearse, Lead Campaigner, The Story of Stuff Project

About TrashBlitz

TrashBlitz is a data collection platform and community-focused research project created by The 5 Gyres Institute. The community-based project is designed to engage local stakeholders in measuring plastic pollution and other trash across various cities – from shorelines to riverbeds to urban neighborhoods – and utilizing data to generate relevant action plans. TrashBlitz provides robust research protocols, a web-based platform that identifies problem products and brands, and a network to bring diverse stakeholders together to co-create solutions to stop plastic pollution at the source.

About The 5 Gyres Institute

The 5 Gyres Institute is a leader in the global movement against plastic pollution with more than 10 years of expertise in scientific research and engagement on plastic pollution issues. Since 2009, the team has completed 19 expeditions, bringing more than 300 citizen scientists, corporate executives, brands, and celebrities to the gyres, lakes, and rivers to conduct first-hand research on plastic pollution. Through this research, 5 Gyres engages diverse stakeholders in understanding the science to drive impact as well as conduct community outreach and citizen science to implement data-driven solutions. With over 1,400 Ambassadors in 66 countries, 5 Gyres supports and is supported by community members with information, tools and connections to help drive local change to fight this global crisis.