A plastic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea too
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
Between Corsica and Italy, a plastic island forms regularly. The accumulations can remain present for several months.
A plastic island in the Tyrrhenian Sea too
Between Corsica and Italy, a plastic island forms regularly. The accumulations can remain present for several months.
The geography of the Tyrrhenian Sea is changing because of plastic. Between Corsica and the island of Elba, a new patch of "land" has in fact come into existence. A plastic island, similar to the one that has been present for years in the Pacific, has been detected in the middle of the sea.
"Enormous concentrations of plastic in specific areas, albeit temporary ones"
The story is reported by the French broadcaster France Bleu, which cites François Galgani, an official at Ifremer (the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) in Bastia. "The arrangement of the currents regularly produces enormous concentrations in specific areas," the expert explained.
The plastic island has a diameter of several kilometres. And, when winds come from northerly quadrants, the waste sometimes reaches the beaches of Corsica as well. Unlike what happens in the Pacific, however, changes in the currents mean that the phenomenon is not permanent. "These are temporary accumulation zones, visible for periods that can range from a few days to a few weeks. Only in some cases does it last two or three months," Galgani specifies.
In any case, this is a particularly alarming situation. The presence of plastic in the seas around Italy is such as to generate a devastating impact on the environment, on marine fauna and on the food chain. In June 2018, Greenpeace had reported the presence of such material in a quarter of fish and invertebrates in the Tyrrhenian Sea.
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A dead sperm whale found in Sicily with a stomach full of plastic
The news of a sperm whale found dead on Friday, 17 May on a beach in Cefalù, in Sicily, only confirms the scale of the problem.
C'erano anche plastica e rifiuti nello stomaco del #capodoglio trovato morto sulla spiaggia di Cefalù, in Sicilia. Il quinto spiaggiato negli ultimi 5 mesi sulle coste italiane
What killed the cetacean, which was six metres long, was in all likelihood the enormous quantity of plastic found in its stomach. According to Carmelo Isgrò, of the technical-scientific committee of the Museum of Fauna at the University of Messina, "there are no other reasons that could explain the death." The animal was 6 or 7 years old, belonging to a species that can live up to 70 or 80 years.
Mayday Mayday Mayday! Centinaia di specie marine stanno lanciando un SOS per colpa della #plastica. Noi vogliamo rispondere, e ci stiamo attivando con #thebluedreamproject e ricercatori per monitorare lo stato di salute del #Mediterraneo. Stay tuned! #MaydayPlastica
"The sea is sending us a cry of alarm, a desperate SOS," commented Giorgia Monti, head of marine campaigns at Greenpeace Italia. The environmental organisation recalled that the Cefalù case is not the first: "Five other whales have washed ashore over the past few months." In particular, in March, a sperm whale had been found in Sardinia with 22 kilograms of plastic in its stomach.