The Asian reporter., June 05, 2017, Page Page 3, Image 3

ASIA / PACIFIC
June 5, 2017
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
Scientists find 38 million pieces
of trash on Pacific island
By Nick Perry
The Associated Press
ELLINGTON, New Zea-
land — When researchers
travelled to a tiny, unin-
habited island in the middle of the
Pacific Ocean, they were astonished
to find an estimated 38 million pieces
of trash washed up on the beaches.
Almost all of the garbage they
found on Henderson Island was made
from plastic. There were toy soldiers,
dominos,
toothbrushes,
and
hundreds of hardhats of every shape,
size, and color.
The researchers say the density of
trash was the highest recorded any-
where in the world, despite Hender-
son Island’s extreme remoteness. The
island is located about halfway
between New Zealand and Chile and
is recognized as a UNESCO world
heritage site.
Jennifer Lavers, a research
scientist at Australia’s University of
Tasmania, was lead author of the
report, which was published in
Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences.
Lavers said Henderson Island is at
the edge of a vortex of ocean currents
known as the South Pacific gyre,
which tends to capture and hold
floating trash.
“The quantity of plastic there is
truly alarming,” Lavers told The
Associated Press. “It’s both beautiful
and terrifying.”
She said she sometimes found
herself getting mesmerized by the
variety and colors of the plastic that
litter the island before the tragedy of
it would sink in again.
Lavers and six others stayed on the
island for three-and-a-half months in
2015 while conducting the study.
They found the trash weighed an
estimated 17.6 tons and that more
than two-thirds of it was buried in
shallow sediment on the beaches.
Lavers said she noticed green toy
soldiers that looked identical to those
her brother played with as a child in
the early 1980s, as well as red motels
from the Monopoly board game.
She said the most common items
they found were cigarette lighters
and toothbrushes. One of the
W
EXOTIC & ILLEGAL. Deputy customs director Abdull Wahid
Sulong shows off seized Ploughshare, right, and Indian Star, left, tortoises
after a press conference at the customs office in Sepang, Malaysia. Ma-
laysian authorities say they seized 330 exotic tortoises from Madagascar
worth 1.2 million ringgit ($276,721) in the latest heist of illegal wildlife
and animal parts being smuggled into the country. (AP Photo/Daniel
Chan)
Malaysia seizes 330 exotic
tortoises from Madagascar
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian
authorities have seized 330 exotic tortoises from
Madagascar worth 1.2 million ringgit ($276,721), in the
latest heist of illegal wildlife and animal parts being
smuggled into the country.
Deputy customs director Abdull Wahid Sulong said that
325 Indian Star tortoises and five Ploughshare tortoises
were packed into five boxes and labelled as stones. He said
the live tortoises, usually kept as pets, arrived via Etihad
Airways from Antanaviro Airport in Madagascar.
Customs officials found the boxes at the Kuala Lumpur
airport cargo warehouse on the same day based on a tip,
Abdull Wahid said.
The import of exotic tortoises requires a special permit
from Malaysia’s Wildlife Department. No arrests were
made and the case is still under investigation, Abdull
Wahid said.
In May, airport customs officials seized African
pangolin scales worth $2.1 million at the airport cargo
warehouse. In April, they confiscated 18 rhino horns
worth $3.1 million believed to have been flown in from
Mozambique and declared as art objects.
Philippines arrests 25 Koreans
over alleged internet fraud
MANILA, The Philippines (AP) — Philippine
authorities have arrested 25 South Koreans for alleged
internet fraud and illegal online gambling.
The Bureau of Immigration said 12 of them are wanted
back home for allegedly operating an online business
scam duping their compatriots into investing money in
bogus real estate projects in the Philippines.
Their arrests in a posh condominium in the capital of
Manila followed the apprehension of four other South
Koreans for alleged internet fraud.
The National Bureau of Investigation also presented to
the media five South Korean nationals arrested for
suspected online gambling operations. It said four South
Korean women operating a secret online casino inside a
mall were also apprehended.
Department of Consumer & Business Services
Workers’ Compensation Division:
What we do
In Oregon, all employers must have workers’ compensation insurance or be self-insured.
The Workers’ Compensation Division enforces laws and regulations and provides services
and resources to assist those in the workers’ compensation system. Workers’ compensation
insurance protects workers by paying for treatment and lost wages. It also protects
employers against legal claims that may result from injury or related illness at work.
Workers’ compensation services include :
• Resolving disputes fairly and quickly. • Prevention and reduction of injuries and illnesses at work.
• Ensuring injured workers receive medical treatment and appropriate
benefits to recover and return to work more quickly.
If you are injured at work or for more information, call the
Workers’ Compensation Division at 1-800-452-0288 or 503-947-7810.
www.wcd.oregon.gov
PERVASIVE PLASTIC. In these 2015 photos provided by Jennifer Lavers, plastic debris is
strewn on the beach on Henderson Island. When researchers travelled to the tiny, uninhabited is-
land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, they were astonished to find an estimated 38 million pieces
of trash washed up on the beaches. (Jennifer Lavers via AP)
Luckily, she said, the guests were
strangest was a baby pacifier.
She said they found a sea turtle still in Tahiti, in French Polynesia,
that had died after getting caught in when she showed up three days late,
an abandoned fishing net and a crab and she still got married.
that was living in a cosmetics
Lavers said she is so appalled by
container.
the amount of plastic in the oceans
By clearing a part of a beach of that she has taken to using a bamboo
trash and then watching new pieces iPhone case and toothbrush.
accumulate, Lavers said they were
“We need to drastically rethink our
able to estimate that more than relationship with plastic,” she said.
13,000 pieces of trash wash up every “It’s something that’s designed to last
day on the island, which is about six forever, but is often only used for a
miles long and three miles wide.
few fleeting moments and then tossed
Henderson Island is part of the away.”
Pitcairn Islands group, a British
Melissa Bowen, an oceanographer
dependency. It is so remote that at the University of Auckland in New
Lavers said she missed her own Zealand who was not involved in the
wedding after the boat coming to study, said that winds and currents
collect the group was delayed.
Continued on page 5