A6
THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, dEcEmbER 4, 2021
Report says US should make less plastic to save oceans
By SETH BORENSTEIN
Associated Press
America needs to rethink and reduce the
way it generates plastics because so much of
the material is littering the oceans and other
waters, the National Academy of Sciences
says in a new report.
The United States, the world’s top plas-
tics waste producer, generates more than
46 million tons a year, and about 2.2 bil-
lion pounds ends up in the world’s oceans,
according to the academy’s report.
If the current rise in plastics pollution
continues, the world by 2030 will be putting
58.4 million tons into the oceans each year,
or about half the weight of the fish caught in
seas, the report said.
Recycling and proper disposal alone
aren’t enough and can’t handle the problem,
so the “United States should substantially
reduce solid waste generation (absolute and
per person) to reduce plastic waste in the
environment,” said the report by the inde-
pendent body of scientists set up by Presi-
dent Abraham Lincoln to advise the federal
government on big research issues.
The plastics issue can’t be solved unless
the country makes less plastic, designs it dif-
ferently, keeps better track of it and cleans
up more waste, and “that’s why our num-
ber one recommendation is to reduce solid
waste generation,” said report chair Marga-
ret Spring, chief conservation and science
officer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
“We suggest that one way to reduce plas-
tic waste would be to make less plastic,”
said oceanographer Kara Lavender Law, a
report co-author who has conducted numer-
ous studies about plastic waste. “Recycling
cannot manage the vast majority of the plas-
tic waste that we generate.”
The panel provided a menu of potential
ways to fix the plastics problem, starting
with “national goals and strategies to cap or
reduce virgin plastic production.”
Virgin plastic is plastic that starts from
feedstock that hasn’t been used — namely,
non-recycled material. The problem, the
report said, is that “virgin plastic prices are
artificially low due to fossil fuel subsidies,
therefore virgin plastics are more profitable
to produce” — and U.S. manufacturing of
them continues to increase.
“More than 90% of plastics are made
from virgin fossil feedstocks, which utilizes
roughly 6% of global oil consumption,” the
report said. And this makes virgin plastic a
climate issue as well as a pollution problem,
said study co-author Jenna Jambeck, a Uni-
versity of Georgia researcher who focuses
on waste issues.
While recycling “is technically possible
for some plastics, little plastic waste is recy-
cled in the United States,” the report said,
noting that materials put in plastics to change
hardness or color make them too complex to
recycle cheaply, compared to making new
virgin plastic.
“One of the major barriers for recycling is
Caleb Jones/AP Photo
Plastic and other debris is seen on the beach on Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in October 2019.
THE UNITED STATES, THE WORLD’S TOP PLASTICS
WASTE PRODUCER, GENERATES MORE THAN 46
MILLION TONS A YEAR, AND ABOUT 2.2 BILLION
POUNDS ENDS UP IN THE WORLD’S OCEANS,
ACCORDING TO THE ACADEMY’S REPORT.
the economics of virgin plastic and subsidiza-
tion of the fossil fuel industry,” Spring said.
The American Chemistry Council, which
represents plastics manufacturers, lauded
most of the academy’s report, but it blasted
the idea of limiting plastics production.
“This is misguided and would lead to sup-
ply chain disruptions, economic and infla-
tionary pressure on already hurt consumers
and worse environmental outcomes, partic-
ularly related to climate change,” American
Chemistry Council Vice President Joshua
Baca said in a statement. The organization,
which touted $7.5 billion in advanced recy-
cling projects since 2017, called for a study
on greenhouse gas implications of raw mate-
rials used in packaging and plastic products.
The report’s figures and recommenda-
tions make sense and are grounded in sci-
ence, said Australian scientist Denise Hard-
esty who studies the plastics waste issue but
wasn’t part of the U.S. report.
“We don’t want to keep doing beach
clean-ups for generations,” Hardesty said in
an email. “Without a systems change, those
(plastic waste) accumulating areas will con-
tinue — and will grow.”
The issue is important because plastics
cause “devastating impacts on ocean health
and marine wildlife,” the report said.
Fish, marine mammals and seabirds get
tangled in plastics or eat them, get sick and
frequently die, the report said. Looking at
hundreds of studies, the report said of 914
marine species examined, 701 had problems
with ingesting plastic and 354 of them got
tangled in plastics.
And DNA studies show that some plas-
tics — especially those exposed to waste-
water — contain human and wildlife viruses
and bacteria that can spread disease, the
report said.
Plastic pollution is not just an ocean prob-
lem, but it’s a problem in rivers, lakes and
on land, Spring said, adding that the Great
Lakes probably have a higher percentage of
plastic pollution than the seas.
Researchers have been studying the issue
for years but can’t really say what percent-
age of the plastics produced by the U.S. ends
up in the water because there are no monitor-
ing and reporting requirements — and there
should be, Law said.
The U.S. makes and exports plastics as
well as imports it so the problem is global,
the authors said.
“The United States produces the mate-
rial, imports it, exports it, we all use it, we
all dispose of it,” Law said. “Being the major
offender, we also have this opportunity” to
fix the problem.
Sea turtle makes improvement after rescue
By LYNDA V. MAPES
Seattle Times
DES MOINES, Wash. — “Shi Shi” the
rescued sea turtle is back in the swim, mak-
ing steady improvement toward good health
and a hopeful release back to the wild.
A green sea turtle, Shi Shi was near death
when a Makah tribal member found the tur-
tle Nov. 16, washed ashore on Shi Shi beach
(pronounced Shy Shy). The turtle had been
blown off course and would have died but
for the quick thinking and caring of many
people, from the tribe to federal agencies
and several nonprofits.
The next day, the turtle was taken to the
Seattle Aquarium, which marshaled a team
that worked around the clock to stabilize and
warm the turtle ever so slowly, no more than
1 degree every four hours, to avoid shocking
the turtle’s system.
The prognosis for the turtle’s survival
was initially dire. Caitlin Hadfield, senior
aquarium veterinarian, pronounced the turtle
“a little bit less mostly dead.” But with the
aquarium’s intensive care, the turtle rallied.
So much so, that on Tuesday the turtle
was taken to an animal hospital and rehabil-
itation center. There, on Thursday, the turtle
had the first thorough physical exam since
the move.
The first step of which was to fish the
turtle out of the outdoor, heated tank at the
animal hospital and rehab center run by the
nonprofit SR3 in Des Moines.
Not so easy, with the turtle now quite
lively, gracefully sweeping across the tank
with a few flipper swipes, and bobbing up to
the surface for a sip of air.
So as two volunteers slipped into the
tank, Casey McLean, executive director of
SR3, reminded them to face the turtle’s head
away: green turtles have quite a bite.
With a heave-ho, they got the turtle up
and out of the tank and onto a pad, then lifted
again onto a cart to wheel the turtle into the
hospital. It was time for X-rays, an ultra-
sound, a round of antibiotics and fluids, and
even some medication to get the turtle’s gut
working.
The turtle’s shell is fingertip sensitive,
and the turtle was awake and not sedated
throughout the procedures. The turtle’s shell
was smooth to the touch, with the plates
defined by ridges. The legs were glossy with
scaled skin, like a snake.
Alan Berner/Seattle Times
Dr. Caitlin Hadfield helps guide ‘Shi Shi’ in a swimming session in a holding pool at the Seattle
Aquarium in November.
The staff handled Shi Shi gently. But
still, a thermometer inserted, well, where it
always goes if not in the mouth, is as noticed
by a turtle as anyone else. Who could blame
the turtle for trying to flipper away.
But that moment soon passed, and the
turtle settled back into waiting out the many
procedures with reptilian calm, earned in
some 100 million years on our planet as a
species, Chelonia mydas.
Volunteers kept the turtle — which nor-
mally would never be out of the water —
well moisturized, both on the shell and flip-
pers, with the same gel used on people for
ultrasound procedures, because it would not
penetrate the shell’s keratin.
What a shell it is, crowning a body that is
perfectly shaped to ease through the water.
Every feature of the turtle is shaped for fluid
dynamics, from the shell wide at the top,
narrowing to the back, the triangular shape
of the head, to the sweeping arc of the front
flippers.
In the wild, sea turtles are powerful
swimmers, cruising along at about a mile per
hour, and clocking better than 15 miles per
hour at a sprint.
They can hold their breath for hours, as
they snooze on the seabed. They are called
green turtles not because of their shell, but
because of a layer of green fat under the
skin, from eating primarily sea grasses and
other plants.
No one really knows where this turtle is
from, but the turtle — its sex is not known
— is most likely from the population that
nests on the beaches of Michoacán, Mexico.
These turtles follow warm currents even far
off the coast of Washington. But that’s where
the trouble can start, if there is a big storm.
This turtle probably during the last cycle
of storms was carried shoreward into Wash-
ington’s cold waters. Turtles can’t moder-
ate their body temperature and become so
stunned with cold they cannot eat or swim.
Veterinarian
Christine
Parker-Gra-
ham began a series of X-rays, the images
instantly showing on a laptop. There were
the turtle’s beautifully streamlined hands,
like elongated versions of our own, suddenly
revealed.
The x-ray showed pneumonia in the lungs
— very common in cold-stunned animals.
An ultrasound’s grainy, swimmy images
also revealed good news — the turtle’s heart
was pumping well, the kidneys looked good
and there was just a bit of movement in the
gut.
Wounds on the turtle’s skin were heal-
ing well, a good sign, because it shows the
immune system is working and the turtle has
enough energy to heal. Parker-Graham cut
away some of the injured flesh in a wound
near a flipper, and daubed it with honey, a
natural antibiotic.
“She looks good, really good, really
improved, she is recovering nicely,” Park-
er-Graham said.
The big concern is that the turtle still is
barely eating.
To keep the turtle hydrated, the care team
administered a mix of fluids including elec-
trolytes, using a large syringe fitted to a tube
and needle to sluice it under the turtle’s skin.
The team also planned to give the tur-
tle a smoothie of butter clams and herring
through a feeding tube. Meanwhile, the tur-
tle’s tank was being cleaned, refilled with
water, and warmed.
The turtle’s body temperature, just 48
degrees when it arrived at the aquarium,
had been perfectly restored to normal by the
aquarium team. The thermometer registered
78.2 degrees during the turtle’s exam: still
just fine.
The turtle is not yet an adult, and weighs
about 40 pounds. Its shell measures just
under 2 feet long.
The plan now is to keep a close watch on
the turtle, continue medications for pneumo-
nia and wound healing, and the gastrointes-
tinal tract. Caregivers will continue to offer a
buffet of clams, herring and organic lettuce,
cucumber and peppers.
Parker-Graham and McLean said the tur-
tle is still fragile, and at any time there could
be a turn for the worse. But if Shi Shi keeps
up the steady improvement, the next stop in
about a month is SeaWorld in San Diego,
and then release back to the wild.
The turtle already has the imprint within
of the beach where it hatched and scram-
bled into the sea, to begin life’s journey, now
more than a decade ago. Everyone helping
the turtle is rooting for that journey to con-
tinue — all the way back to the sea.
But first, Shi Shi has got to start eating.
Anyone encountering a sea turtle on the
beach should immediately call the West
Coast Marine Mammal Stranding Network
at 866-767-6114. Do not touch the tur-
tle. Keep children and pets away. Call right
away, it’s a life or death situation, the turtle
needs immediate care.