By Veronica Davis, AP Environmental Science Student
A Youth Envisioning Sustainable Futures Project
Scientific Inquiry
HOW CAN A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH HELP YOU ADDRESS YOUR TOPIC?
By collecting data I am able to see how much marine debris is left on beaches that are frequented by Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles.
PREVIOUS FINDINGS:
In a study done by Qamar Schuyler, Britta Denise Hardesty, Chris Wilcox, Kathy Townsend, titled “To Eat or Not to Eat? Debris Selectivity by Marine Turtles”, found that close to ninety percent of the debris ingested by turtles in their study was plastic in origin. As the global production and use of plastics continues to rise, it is likely that impacts to turtles will not abate. Additionally, the observed trend towards selectivity for rubber items, particularly balloons, highlights the need for targeted pollution prevention plans.
HOW:
I collected my data at Ali’i beach starting by finding physical markers by which to base the location of my data collection so my results would be consistent. Each time I went to collect data, I started from a certain rock and the waterline and then followed the beach up the hill until I reached the parking lot. My breadth was roughly a meter wide each time. I would then collect the debris and place it in a container to take home for sorting.
DATA COLLECTION:
I collected data at Ali’i beach a total of 25 times. After the collection of marine debris I sorted each of them into 13 categories: Cigarettes; plastic food wrappers; plastic lids, cups, and straws; plastic bottles and caps; plastic bags; cloth; paper; glass; metal; aluminum cans; other plastics; balloons; and fishing gear.
DATA ANALYSIS:
43% of debris collected was plastic. This count, however, does not include cigarette butts, which contain a plastic foam filter. Including cigarette butts, that percentage jumps 82 percent. Plastics are particularly damaging to the marine environment, as they do not biodegrade, and are easily ingested by wildlife. Many of the plastics collected were pieces less than one inch in diameter.
CONCLUSION:
What does your analysis tell you about the population/place in the present?
The amount of plastic left of the beaches is alarming seeing that turtles end up ingesting plastics the most. Appropriate waste disposal measures to reduce debris through local measures would help to decrease the amount of anthropogenic debris entering the ocean; an important first step in reducing encounter rates and impacts to marine wildlife from ingestion or entanglement.