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South Pacific Desert Island Being Destroyed by Plastic Debris
South Pacific Desert Island Being Destroyed by Plastic Debris
Jan 17, 2024 3:34 PM

Plastic debris strewn on a Henderson Island beach in the South Pacific.

(University of Tasmania)

At a Glance

Henderson Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was once considered an environmental "gem."Today, it is strewn with an estimated 18 tons of plastic garbage.The island sits in the middle of the South Pacific gyre, which pushes more plastics ashore.

What was once a remote, pristine island in the eastern South Pacific is now a plastics garbage dump.

Henderson Island is an uninhabited coral atoll located halfway between New Zealand and Peru in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. Considered by UNESCO, the island's beaches are now strewn with an estimated – or 38 million pieces of plastic – the highest density of plastic debris ever recorded, according to a press release.

Dr. Jennifer Lavers, a research scientist at the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, has made several trips to the island to lead clean-up efforts. Her latest expedition was in June, when her 12-member team cleaned up six tons of plastic garbage over a two-week period.

"We found " Lavers told phys.org. "We had bottles and containers, all kinds of fishing stuff and it had come from, well, you name it – Germany, Canada, the United States, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador. It was a real message that every country has a responsibility to protect the environment, even in these remote areas."

(MORE: Great Pacific Garbage Patch Now Twice the Size of Texas and Getting Worse)

A beach on Henderson Island before Lavers and her team cleaned it up.

(University of Tasmania)

The team collected so much garbage that they were unable to haul it all away on the ship that brought them to the island. Instead, they left a portion of the haul above the high-tide line for later pickup.

The island lies in the middle of the South Pacific gyre, an expansive circular current that covers an area from the east coast of Australia to the west coast of South America. At one time, the gyre distributed rich nutrients to the islands in the region. Today, it delivers plastic garbage.

In 1988, the atoll considered an "untouched paradise" was listed on the United Nations' (UNESCO) World Heritage List.

"Henderson Island, which lies in the eastern South Pacific, is one of the few atolls in the world whose ecology has been practically untouched by a human presence," UNESCO said on its website.

"As one of the last near-pristine limestone islands of significant size in the world, Henderson Island retains its exceptional natural beauty with its white, sandy beaches, limestone cliffs, and rich and almost undisturbed vegetation," UNESCO added.

It's apparently a description that no longer holds merit.

Lavers noted that it was "heartbreaking" to collect tons of plastic from the shoreline only to watch more plastic garbage float to shore.

"We'd be having our lunch and watching it replenish in real-time as things like buoys and bits of rope washed onto the beach," she told phys.org.

Lavers said cleanups help but aren't a long-term solution to a problem that is not just occurring on the island, but throughout the world.

"More plastic waste continues to enter oceans and waterways around the world every day and the logistical challenges our expedition faced highlight the difficulties of undertaking large scale cleanups, particularly in remote areas," Lavers said. "The most sustainable long-term solution is to promote and invest in ways to prevent plastic from entering the waste stream in the first place."

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