The floating object in the humpback whale’s path at first looked like an ocean sunfish, which are roundish and can often be seen lazily floating on the water’s surface.
It wasn’t until photographer Mark Girardeau got home, where he could see the drone video he shot up close during an excursion aboard Newport Coastal Adventure, that he realized it was no fish, but instead was a plastic bag stuck in the whale’s mouth.
Finally the whale was able to swim upside down and release the bag, but the moment showed what marine life is grappling with just offshore of Southern California’s coast, where advocates say ocean trash appears worse than ever.
“We are seeing way more plastics out on the surface of the water since the pandemic hit,” said Kurt Lieber, founder and president of the Ocean Defenders Alliance.
About a week ago, Lieber took a boat out of San Pedro and headed north to Point Vicente off Palos Verdes. The moment he left the Los Angeles Harbor, he said he saw a distinct line of plastic trash – and it continued for the next 10 miles.
“It was so disheartening,” he said in an email. “This is an area where we see migrating gray whales at this time of year.”
This is Lieber’s 21st year out on the ocean with the Ocean Defenders Alliance and he said he never has he seen the trash problem this bad.
Lieber pulled his boat close to kelp patties, dozens of them inundated with plastic trash, he said.
“When we got to Point Vicente, we headed about a mile out to get out of the cesspool, and were greeted by a pod of common dolphins that wanted to bow ride for the next two miles,” he said, a pleasant end to what was a bummer outing.
While the Ocean Defenders Alliance hasn’t done any quantifiable studies on the percentages of trash found offshore, Lieber estimates about 80% is single-use plastics.
“Sodas and water bottles, bags of all shapes and sizes, forks, spoons, knives and plastic film packaging,” he said. “COVID masks, surgical gloves, and last, but not least, cigarette butts.”
Girardeau said it’s not uncommon to see trash offshore in the days following a winter season storm, when rain pushes trash that has been building up during the dry months downstream to the coast. But it’s been nearly a month since the last rain and there’s still piles of trash floating around offshore, he said.
“It’s been a month and there’s still crap all over,” he said. “Usually it dissipates … there’s still trash everywhere. “
It wasn’t just the plastic bag the whale encountered off Huntington Beach’s coastline. Trash dotted the ocean’s surface for miles – small bits and bigger pieces – more than Girardeau said he has seen in the past six years documenting sea life off the coast.
“That was the first humpback we’ve seen in at least a month. It was cool to see that, but to see it in trash, it was like, ‘come on,’” he said. “There wasn’t any video I was able to take without getting trash in it. It was pretty ridiculous.”
There has always been the balloons floating around and bits of trash they come across, but this was different, he said.
“There’s face masks, gloves and water bottles,” he said. “There were several coolers, which is weird. It’s almost like every random thing is out there, every type of piece of trash. A lot of chip bags.”
There could be pandemic-related reasons ocean trash seems especially bad.
When Lieber drives the 405 freeway from his home in Ventura to his boat in the harbor in Los Angeles, he said he can’t help but notice the trash piled up along the sides of the freeway, knowing it will eventually be blown to the coast or washed down sewers and waterways to the ocean.
“I see literally tons of trash on the highways and roadsides,” he said.
Big cleanup events with large numbers of volunteers have been off the table for most of the year because of gathering restrictions, so a lot less trash is being scooped up – the Ocean Defenders Alliance and the Orange County Coastkeeper usually met once a month to remove trash in Huntington Beach.
Most restaurants are shut down for dinning, so people take their meals packaged for takeout to places like the beach to eat outdoors. Even inland, to-go containers and other trash left in parks or gutters makes their way down storm drains and into the ocean.
“Even if people think it’s not going to the beach, it is going to the beach,” Girardeau said. “If you litter in Mission Viejo, it’s going to go in the creek and to the ocean. It’s not just going to go away.”
Beach crowds have surged since the pandemic, with other forms of entertainment or sports still shut down, meaning more people are leaving trash behind. It was a problem throughout summer months – Los Angeles County officials created messaging to remind people to “pack in, pack out.”
“It would be nice to let people know, just make sure you take care of your trash responsibly,” Girardeau said.
For sea life, the trash can be harmful. Had the humpback whale eaten the bag thinking it was a fish, it could cause serious health problems, or worse.
“It goes to show how confusing it is to animals,” Girardeau said. “There’s no trash out there that’s good.”
Source: Orange County Register
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