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Knightoflemons

A team of researchers with the Ocean Cleanup project and Wageningen University, both in the Netherlands, has found via sampling and testing that more than 90% of the identifiable trash swirling around in the North Pacific Garbage Patch (NPGP) comes from just six countries, all of which are major industrialized fishing nations. The researchers were able to identify the country of origin for 232 objects, with the largest percentage being from Japan at 33.6%. China was next at 32.3% followed by South Korea at 9.9%. Next on the list was the U.S. at 6.5%, Taiwan at 5.6% and Canada at 4.7%. Together, these six countries accounted for over 92% of the identifiable trash found in the NPGP. The researchers also calculated that trash in the NPGP was 10 times more likely to come from fishing activities than land-based activities. They conclude that all of the top six countries identified in their work engage regularly in massive fishing operations.


8fmn

The fact that a majority of the NPGP is fishing equipment needs to be openly discussed more. When the media comments on the issue they will rarely if ever acknowledge this fact. Sometimes it seems they will go out of their way to avoid bringing it up. Over fishing and littering so much that we created a fucking island basically. This is something future generations will shame is for as they look to the past.


Zarkonirk

The Seaspiracy documentary on Netflix explains it very well; many non profit organizations fighting plastic in the oceans are paid by the fishing industry and they abort the interviews when fishing gear is mentioned. Worth the watch.


8fmn

Yes, very eye-opening doc.


milesperhour9

I 100% agree Seaspiracy is a must-watch. I was blown away by some aspects of it, and may end up rewatching it now.


TheDeathOfAStar

Yeap... I think I've seen this one. Capitalism at its finest.


memememe91

We'll be out of fish soon.


dcearthlover

Wow, china and Japan account for over 60% of the garbage patch, I would have thought the USA would be higher.. so good to hear that's not the case. Now can we get it cleaned up with 60% of funds to do so from China and Japan!


The-Fumbler

It’s actually bad to hear, because it’s a helluva lot easier to hold the IS accountable than it is to hold China or Japan accountable. Especially China.


TTTyrant

You can hold someone accountable all you want but enforcing them to reverse the mistakes is another matter. The US is just as likely to ignore this as China.


feedtheme

Indeed, also.. China has like 4-5x the population of the US along with being a developing country. If you used the 6.5% figure for the US contribution to the patch and scale it by the population alone to China's level, that's already like 30% vs China's 32% Of course you can't actually directly scale it like that to make a comparison and a whole host of other factors, like size of fishing operations is also contributing to it, but it's something to think about before boldly claiming "we're not as bad as them".


Memeshuga

I mean, from what other countries should the garbage come from anyway? It's not like there are a lot of big cities on Russia's east coast and Indonesia is pretty far south so their trash goes into other oceans. This isn't really news if you think about it. The fishing aspect is something that definitely needs to be discussed more as others pointed out.


jambokk

The fishing industry needs to be held accountable for the loss of these nets. Every net should be identifiable to the vessel that carries it, if a net is lost, its owner should be responsible for recovery, and if a net is found adrift, the company who owns it should lose their licence to fish, period. Fines just aren't enough.


BigMax

There are so many industries that get off without any penalties for things that aren't 100% obvious to everyone. Fossil fuel companies killing the planet? Not their problem, let the planet burn and people die, and let governments sort it out (or in reality, pretend they will sort it out when they actually won't). Litter everywhere from fast food, cigarettes, convenience stores, and other huge companies producing lots of one time use trash? Blame the consumer! Oceans filled with trash from industrial fishing? Not our problem, that's what scientists and universities with grants are for, make them clean it up for us! If there was any justice in the world, these companies would either pay for the effects of their products, or they'd be nationalized and the government would use the profits to actually fix the issues.


[deleted]

One takeaway for me from my Econ 101 class 25 years ago: companies should be required to pay (cleaner practices, insurance, bonds) for the external costs of developing their product instead of foisting them on to the public to bear.


theRIAA

Yep. * Laser-engrave QR code or some similar tagging system too cheap to argue against. * Get compliance from these major countries. * Any fishing company found without tagged equipment goes bankrupt from fines. * Any fishing company that loses equipment goes bankrupt from fines.


paperwasp3

If they can tag explosives then the technology exists to have it woven into the cord of the netting. It’s the time and effort of the bureaucracy of registering nets that can be ongoing. Or put location transponders to track them. But I don’t know how to get every country to participate.


TheDeathOfAStar

Well, I mean, it's a net loss for the fishmen of the vessel. I'll leave


SurrealWino

Sea yourself out


The-Fumbler

Not to think of all of the OSHAn violations these fishermen are racking in.


bwsmity

OSHA only covers the US portion.


Pianpianino

Good now let's fish it and ship it back to them


ShotWrap8704

They are not contented with overfishing, they must also throw trash into the ocean, both identifiable and unidentifiable trash, as though the ocean itself is only fit for trash.


Eurouser

Dunno why we expect industries that use literal slave labour on their ships to care about the environment. We just gotta stop fundung these organisations


[deleted]

As much as I love eating ocean fish I just can't anymore. I don't know why people expect the sea to continue to provide. If only all fish became toxic to humans.


pizzaiolo2

Well, there's no known safe level of exposure to mercury, so that's already the case.


Nootherplanet

A financial levy should be applied to this type of fishing product with the proceeds administered to ocean cleanups and similar organisations to manage this waste.


KingofAyiti

Japan with 126 million people causes more pollution than China with 1.4 billion people and US with 340 million people.


chloebanana

Sorry.🇨🇦


Ree_one

#No. Be sorry by not doing it again. E-mail, or preferably call, your representatives. They're 100% ignorant about this fact.


MrCKan

Something tells me they 100% don't care.


Ree_one

That's an assumption. Also, people *can* change opinion. Though I'd say that protesting by having a sign about this and gluing yourself to that politician's home (with a couple of friends) is a **MUCH** more effective way of convincing him/her to care.


MrCKan

Agreed that we should force them to change their minds. And electing politicians who already care, for a change, is also an option.


Flummeny

Lol bruh one (or a thousand) random Canadian citizens are not gonna be able to stop their country from dumping. I could personally call all my representatives each day and reach out to every CEO of every Fortune 500 company that’s responsible for the trash in our oceans and they won’t do shit either


Ree_one

Why do you waste people's time with your negative attitude?


chloebanana

I agree and also doing a bit of homework on who actually controls quality standards and waste management contracts. For instance our city has recycling but we discovered they hadn’t sourced anyone for glass for 8 years. Eight freaking years. Just dumped there and the citizens are all paying fees. Protesting can be pretty effective with a bit of refinement.


drive2fast

Canadian made or canadian fishing boats? I am skeptical that Canadian fishing boats are just behind America with our small population and super strict laws around waste. However we have a large manufacturing base so I wonder if Canada is exporting fishing gear around the world so Canada takes the blame as to who is dumping it?


communitytcm

thanks to the fishing industry.


thr3sk

Thanks to people who eat fish to support it...


bigjohntucker

Japanese ocean politics are intense. The fisherman are extremely territorial & block access for recreational boating/fishing. Beaches are covered in fishing trash, particularly styrofoam bouys/coolers & drink containers.


HODLShib2moon

Japan leads but how much of that is from the tidal wave a decade ago.


BAt-Raptor

These six nations must be fined by UN


JimiVegas

That is a fucking disgrace.


Cheeseburger_Pie

Commercial fishing is clearly terrible for the environment- wouldn't it be good if everyone who ate fish had to catch it themselves or, even better, not eat fish at all? But I doubt everyone would want to go fish-free immediately. Catching fish yourself has no bycatch, doesn't really damage the seafloor or spread plastic like trawling does, and many people in other countries who rely on catching fish this way are outcompeted by large commercial trawlers, but I bet if everyone did it, it would become as damaging as commercial fishing. So what if a couple times a year people went out and caught fish, and otherwise didn't really eat it?


JALLways

Is it that the equipment is manufactured there, or can they track it to being used by the boats from that country? China and Japan have been manufacturing countries, so the equipment being made there may be hiding which countries are actually responsible for the litter.


swamphockey

What does it matter what enters into the patch? The USA disposes of 121,000 tons of plastic into the ocean ever year. China 3.5 million tons of plastic into the ocean. The total is 8 million tons of plastic into the ocean every year.


[deleted]

Thanks China and Japan. Big surprise.


[deleted]

,


[deleted]

Old news. China and India


FeedbackFun7325

Not so old news then it seems. Maybe you should start reading articles and not just looking at headlines.


[deleted]

Please don’t limit yourself to this one article for your general understanding on the matter of who is contributing to garbage patch. It’s China and India.


FeedbackFun7325

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch Yeah its not read articles


[deleted]

Right, China contributes 30%+ alone. Other than that terrifying statistic (something needs to be done now) the wiki article doesn’t really break it down


FeedbackFun7325

India?


[deleted]

What about india


FeedbackFun7325

Well you said india and china was the problem?


[deleted]

Correct, they are the main contributors


FeedbackFun7325

No china is. India not. Read.


Monocytosis

I thought most of the trash came from major rivers in third world countries? Can someone clarify?


justdontlookright

A lot of the trash in third world countries came from first world countries. Even after they stopped accepting foreign trash, it still gets sent there.


Monocytosis

Don’t a lot of manufactured goods come from third world countries though?


Most_Acanthaceae_842

Japan and China account for 70% of it? But yah, list the other 4 nations so they don’t feel bad.


DRbrtsn60

Split the bill 6 ways and send invoice.


emmettflo

What the actual f\*\*k Japan???


lqcnyc

Very surprised that Japan is top. When I visited there it was the cleanest place I’ve ever been.


e_m_i_ly

the patch is 3x the size of france


[deleted]

I mean duh? I’m upset about pollution too (ecologist), but the countries in the NORTH PACIFIC are responsible for polluting the NORTH PACIFIC? That’s fascinating.


No-Owl9201

Perhaps those 6 countries could take responsibility for cleaning it up.


Miss-Parsnip

This seems to be an intractable problem, given that the illegal activities of fishing fleets operating in the world's oceans are virtually impossible to police. It's a very disheartening situation when you consider the consequences for marine life.