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Goderich Signal Star, 2017-03-29, Page 19Wednesday, March 29, 2017 • Signal Star 19 Microplastics threaten Great Lakes Geographer, filmmaker and Great A. Lakes sampling project co -leader Jennifer Pate provides warning about harmful microplastics Ilarmful plastic pollution can be denser in the Great Lakes than in oceans, more than 60 people heard at a conservation awards event on March 16, 2017. The people at the Ausable Bayfield Conservation awards evening learned, through a presentation, about the need to reduce plastic use and prevent tiny, harmful plastic fibres from reaching our lakes and oceans. Bayfield's Jennifer Pate was the keynote speaker at the event, held at Ironwood Golf Club east of Exeter. She is a geographer, filmmaker and co -leader of microplas- tics sampling projects in the Caribbean and the Great Lakes. . . The guest speaker's mes- sage to Love Your Greats brought a different kind of love story to the event. It was the story of the love that people have for their Great Lakes and how that connec- tion to their lake is fueling their efforts to make posi- tive changes. "When you invite them (to help), when you tap into that love (of the Great Lakes), amazing things start to happen," Pate said. The presenter offered two sides to the story of plastic pollution and the Great Lakes. One side was a scary one with data about the threat to our health and our water from plastics, micro - plastics, microfibres, and nanoplastics. The other, more positive side of the talk showed examples of community and individual efforts to address the problem. There have been positive recent developments in policy to address plastic contamina- tion, the presenter said, including a scheduled plan to ban some microbeads in Canada, to take effect in 2018. Local people have been engaged also in water sampling, shoreline cleanup, and making changes as consumers such as stopping use of disposa- ble plastic water bottles. Pate sailed 3,00( nautical miles across the Atlantic Ocean in November of 2014, from Lanzarote to Marti- nique, as a filmmaker with an all -woman team called eXXpedition. "I had never sailed before," she told the crowd. "I jumped at the chance." The opportunity to sail an ocean may have enticed her to join the expedition but her interest soon changed to the environ- mental and health threat posed by plastic in its many forms. "I was shocked," Pate said. "I was ashamed I didn't know this problem existed." The speaker showed the attendees a photo of an. island of plastic litter in an ocean and asked the attend- ees where the photo had been taken. It surprised the people at the event to find out the photo was from Los Angeles. Gyres are large, round, swirling ocean surface cur- rents that can lead to the collection of pollution in a defined area. The .force of the Coriolis Effect causes currents to circulate in the ocean and these Gyre sys- tems can lead to islands of litter and plastics. Pate told the crowd, however, that plastic doesn't exist out in the oceans the way we may think it does. Water may look clear and blue but be filled with tiny, toxic pieces of plastic that can't be seen with the naked eye. "We don't just see a plastic water bottle float- ing by," she said. "The majority of the plastic that's out there is micro - plastic, five millimetres in diameter or smaller, and in most cases it is completely invisible to the naked eye." Plastic may get broken down into smaller and smaller pieces but that plastic doesn't disappear, according to Pate. "When I first started working on this (problem of plastics in our water) nobody was talking about it," she recalled. The speaker had always had a personal connection with the Great Lakes but the ocean expeditions fostered her love of the oceans as well. "This trip was a com- plete shift change not only in my career but how I live my life." Aboard the ship, the team members studied the plas- tics they were sampling from the ocean through bucket grabs. "As we started to look down the micro- scope on board ... we real- ized it's not just these microplastics, five millime- tres in diameter or smaller," Pate recalled. "We actually have nanoplastics now, completely invisible to the naked eye, only visible under the microscope, and these are things that are one millimetre in diameter or smaller." The presence of plastic particles in oceans and lakes threatens aquatic health and human health. The presence of plastic isn't the only reason to be con- cerned. There is also con- cern about the toxins attached to the plastic. Plastics act as "sponges" for toxins. There is the threat posed by tiny microbeads in detergents, cosmetics, and toiletries. There is also an increasing focus on microfibres from clothing. "What we're realizing now - this is really the unseen plastic product that's a huge threat to our waterways and our health," according to Pate. Just one load of wash of polyester clothes can release hundreds of thou- sands of microscopic plastic fibres into the environment. This tiny plastic pollution doesn't just affect fish, who can't tell the difference between what's poison and what's food, but it also shows up as harmful toxins in humans. "We are not sep- arate from our environ- ment," the speaker said. "Human and environmental health are intrinsically linked and what we put out we get back." Plastic pollution in the goderichsignalstar.com Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic and other oceans is a serious threat. •Ihe density of plas- tic pollution in the Great Lakes is as high or higher than that found in oceans. "We actually have a higher density of microplastics here in the Great Lakes than in any of the ocean Gyres," the presenter said. Pate has co -led eXXpedi- tion Caribbean (conducting the first-ever sampling for microplastics in the Carib- bean Sea) and also co -led eXXpedition Great Lakes (the world's largest simulta- neous sampling for micro - plastics in history). These and other expedi- tions opened her eyes to the problems posed by plastic products and the resulting tiny, harmful microplastics (five millimetres in diameter or smaller and often invisible to the naked eye) and microfibers and nanoplas- tics that end up in lakes and oceans. "Protecting the planet for the future demands exceptional lead- ership and I believe that we have it if we work together and support each other," Pate said. See page 23 for more. For Every 50 People Who See This Ad, If they all donated blood at the community blood donor clinic, 1 CAR ACCIDENT VICTIM COULD BE SAVED. .` Donate blood to honour flood cancer survivors and to remember those childhood heroes who lost their lives. Blood. Donor Clinic Goderich Knights of . 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