TAMPA, Fla. — We all see plastic bags, water bottles and trash littering our roads and waterways. But, according to researchers, what we see barely scratches the surface of what's lurking in the deep.
A recent study by researcher Dr. Charlotte Haberstroh, to complete her PhD thesis and dissertations at the University of South Florida, found billions of pieces of plastic entering the Hillsborough River.
"3.33 billion plastic pieces per year are moving out of the Hillsborough River into the bay," Dr. Haberstroh said. "Two tons is the plastic that we estimate to be moving through the river per year. I mean, it's huge; honestly, when I first started this, I was slightly worried. What if I did all this research and then I don't actually find plastic in the river?"
Her doubts quickly faded, and Haberstroh knew she was onto something. For 18 months, she canoed the river with all of her hi-tech equipment capturing macro and microplastics. During one collection event, she said a debris mat floated toward her.
"Within five minutes, like all our nets just got full. We had to fill the samples in buckets. It was much more than our normal sample containers," Dr. Haberstroh said. "There was plastic everywhere. And then after that, it was looking like this again, like clean and nice, nothing going on. And that day, we had over 4,000 plastic particles collected in that five minutes."
Dr. Haberstroh said her research had taken her to Cambodia to sample the Mekong River. The floating mat of plastic was more in Tampa.
"But still, the highest sample I've ever done throughout my whole research was that one that I saw downtown here that I just described," Dr. Haberstroh said.
"That was the highest concentration in the water that I've done my research," she added. "It helps people know it's not only a problem somewhere in Southeast Asia; this is a problem here in my city."
‘A RAINBOW OF PLASTIC’
Trash that flushes into the Hillsborough River ends up in Tampa Bay, the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. Sea turtles often mistake plastic for jellyfish or squid, a mistake that can prove fatal.
Experts say it is hard to know the exact number of marine life killed by plastics. The Sea Turtle Conservancy, for example, cites UNESCO Facts and Figures on Marine Pollution, stating, "over 1 million marine animals (including mammals, fish, sharks, turtles, and birds) are killed each year due to plastic debris in the ocean."
Veterinarians across Tampa Bay are seeing more and more plastic.
"I wish I could be shocked by it," Florida Aquarium staff veterinarian Dr. Lindsey Waxman said. "It's really disheartening when you go, and you do an animal necropsy, and your first thought is, 'Where am I going to find the plastic? Where is the plastic?' I would say we're seeing a pretty significant percentage, probably easily over 75%."
Dr. Waxman described the first time she found microplastics inside a baby turtle that had passed.
"It was very startling. It's, unfortunately, a rainbow of plastic," she said. "You get little pieces of white, blue, pink and red. And the first time I had done a necropsy, you're used to certain colors inside an animal. And when you see something that's neon blue sticking out, you're like, 'Well, that's definitely abnormal.'"
Dr. Shelly Marquardt, senior veterinarian at Clearwater Marine Aquarium, said they'll sometimes find plastics in the holding tanks of rescued marine life. They even had a sea turtle who swallowed a long piece of plastic whole.
"We're very lucky that he was able to get it out," Dr. Marquardt said. "Had it wadded up in a certain way or even twisted, it could have caused a much different outcome for him."
GHOST TRAP RODEO
At two locations on Saturday, July 15, more than 150 volunteers removed 8,384 pounds of trash, including 260 derelict or abandoned traps.
Plastic isn't the only thing killing our marine life. Ghost traps decimate populations of fish, crabs, lobster and any marine life that goes into the trap for a meal, only to die of starvation.
Ocean Aid 360 president Neill Holland pulled his boat to a suspected derelict crab trap, and what was found inside was heartbreaking: several fish, spider crabs and something coveted by Floridians and people worldwide.
"This is what everybody is looking for during stone crab season," Holland said. "And, we want to make sure it is out there swimming in the grass beds instead of getting killed in ghost traps not getting checked."
Holland said ghost traps and plastics both pose a unique set of issues.
"Plastics break down and degrade over time; they put microplastics into our watershed. Marine life ingests it, and it goes right into our food systems. That's terrifying to me, right?" he said. "But, on the other hand, that ghost gear and lost crab traps and such, it's depleting our shared marine resources by continuing to fish even though nobody's checking on it any longer."
The fish and crabs today got lucky.
"During our last event at Key West, 28 adult specimens of spiny lobsters were market ready inside the single trap. Do you know how many other traps came up besides that one during that 12-hour stretch? Another 821 traps," Holland said. "We must work together to get as much of the no-longer-being-tended gear, ghost gear out of the water and our plastics. And just all of us keep it clearer in mind and make it a daily practice."
Holland would love to hold more Ghost Trap Rodeos. But, as a nonprofit, they depend on private donors and fundraising events. Despite that, Holland said people are hungry to do more and help the environment. They had so many people register for this rodeo they had to stop taking people.
TAMPA'S LITTER SKIMMER
The amount of waste removed through the tireless work of nonprofits, volunteers and city lead efforts is in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.
In its first year in operation, the Litter Skimmer pulled in 13 tons or 26,000 pounds. The boat cruises the Hillsborough River along Tampa's Riverwalk, around Davis Island and the Ybor Channel.
Working 10 hours a day, four to five days a week, utility waterway operator Anthony Sardinas said they pull out trash daily.
"Normal trash is going to be, you know, your bottle, your potato chip bags, your bags. We get a lot of timbers out here, old docks that fall down, things that fall off the dock and so on," Sardinas said. "A lot of trash from the streets and stuff when it rains. Everything flows to this river."
Massive screens at the David L. Tippin Water Treatment Facility keep plastic and debris from flowing into our drinking water.
"If it gets in the pump, some of it may get chopped up into even smaller pieces, which will be filtered out later on in the process. But more importantly, it'll damage our pumps," John Ring, the Water Treatment Manager, said.
Crews use giant motorized rakes to pull trash out of the water, collect it, then send it to the waste energy power plant.
As expected, plastic bags are one of their top offenders, but worker A.J. Shaw said, "You name it, we've probably found it. We have a kiddie pool right now that we just found the other day."
Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful sent us some of their stats for their community cleanup efforts.
In 2022, a total of 16,421 volunteers removed 265,574 pounds of waste.
As more and more plastics constantly flow into our waterways, we all have to do more to be better.
"It is not this fairytale that life is wonderful," Dr. Marquardt said. "And these animals are so resilient and have gone through so much. They've dealt with so much, not only from plastics and different things but also natural events like red tide. If we're able to help in any way, even just on an individual level, it makes a difference."
