| In 2019, NEA said it collected over 1,000 tonnes of floating marine debris from the beaches in East Coast Park.
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Why is marine debris a problem?
- Marine animals get entangled and cut by fishing nets, or even trapped in plastic, making it difficult for them to swim around
- Marine debris may be mistaken as food or accidentally eaten by marine animals, which can cause obstruction in their digestive tract, puncture the insides of their guts, or cause them to feel full but they are starving.
- Also, these debris with sharp edges or harmful substances that leach into the water bodies are also consumed by us when we eat the seafood.
- Marine debris causes habitat damage and allow non-native species to attach and travel to new places.
- Larger marine trash poses threats to navigation by vessels, sometimes causing collisions.
- Marine trash affect tourism and livelihoods of fishermen.
Has the marine trash problem improved over the years?
- There seems to be fewer marine debris collected during the clean-up in 2019 than 2014
- However, this is dependent on the total distance covered and number of participants involved in the cleanup.
- A better way is to normalize the data based on the distance covered.
What are the kind of marine debris we are likely to find as we walk every 1 metre?
- Foam pieces, Plastic beverage bottles, Plastic pieces, Cigarette butts, Straws/Stirrers are the top 5 commonly found marine debris.
- Top commonly found marine debris: Foam pieces.
- The rest are largely plastics, which can affect our health and is currently studied.
Where are the marine debris found?
Who keeps our beaches clean?
Besides cleaners, agencies, paddlers, and coastal cleanup volunteers,YOU too can make a difference
so that we can all enjoy the beauty of nature.
Hopefully?
This site is created by Ong Kian Eng and Ng Xun Long using a combination of D3, online data visualization tools (Flourish, Leaflet), DataTable and scrollytelling tools.
Photos and videos were taken by us if not otherwise stated.
Background photo of Siloso Beach, Sentosa, Singapore