Monday January 20, 2025
Plastics Today —
There’s always some controversy over ocean plastic — such as who is responsible for it and what to do about it — but everyone agrees that plastic doesn’t belong in the ocean.
Or do they?
I was floored deeper than the Mariana Trench last month to find that at least one scientist is saying that we should be slowing down our efforts at cleaning up ocean plastic. That researcher is Rebecca Helm, an ocean biologist at Georgetown University and the University of North Carolina – Asheville. Helm has commented in national and international forums in the past on ocean plastic cleanup efforts. She has been a vocal critic of the efforts of the Ocean Cleanup project run by Boyan Slat. Slat’s efforts have been covered here at PlasticsToday, and involve running giant skimmers along the ocean surface to remove the plastic.
Ocean skimmers capture sea creatures along with plastic waste
Such a skimmer cannot be designed to avoid removing a range of ocean critters both large and small at the same time that it’s removing plastic. Helm’s not been a fan of that approach, arguing that the removal of the sea critters causes more harm than what’s gained by removing the plastic.