Vast amounts of marine debris have been found in the Bay of Bengal. These are non-disposable, posing a grave threat to marine life, marine economy and human health, according to a study.
The study report titled 'Bangladesh Marine Debris Report 2014', due to be published later this month, is going to be the first of its kind in the country.
A brief excerpt of the survey report shows that among the debris, plastic materials constitute 54.26 per cent and glass and ceramic, metal, rubber, wood, cloth, paper/cardboard and mixed materials 45.74 per cent.
Among the plastic materials, most abundant objects were poly-pack of consumer products like biscuits, potato chips, chanachur, food wrappings, and water bottles.
Among the other materials, most abundant items were beverage cans, shoes, tableware and dishes.
Save Our Sea (SoS) Founder and CEO Mohammad Arju said the state of marine debris in the Bay poses a wide range of threats to fisheries, tourism and recreation, and the value these add to our local economies also complicates shipping and transportation by causing navigation hazards.
SoS conducted the debris survey in cooperation with regional initiative Mangroves For the Future (MFF) Bangladesh.
"We should concentrate on building national capacity for research, monitoring and reduction of marine debris, as 'significantly reducing land-based marine debris and nutrient pollution' are also a target under newly adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals," he said FE.
The report contains results from Save Our Sea's survey organised last year under the National Underwater Cleanup in marine areas adjacent to Saint Martin's Island. Total sampling hours were 72.88 hours and total sampling area was 79,463 square metres in the study.
The rubbish collected is categorised based on material of construction: plastic, glass/ceramic, metal, rubber, wood, cloth, paper/cardboard, mixed materials and other debris items.
Contacted, Professor of Department of Zoology at the University of Dhaka Dr. M Niamul Naser said the long-term effect of plastic and other solid debris found in the sea would be mixed up with environment after 100 or more years and ultimately would be consumed by human and other living beings.
"So health risk of our future generation is grave from this debris," he said.
"And short-term impact from debris in the sea is destruction of coral and other sea plants gradually that would influence food chain gravely," he said.
Senior Scientific Officer of the National Oceanographic Research Institute Abu Sayeed Muhammad Sharif said a national-level awareness campaign is now number one priority to prevent pollution of the Bay of Bengal.
"A large-scale national awareness campaign should be initiated by government including broadcasting advertisements in national mass media to make people understand how harmful this debris in the Bay could be to human life and marine life ," he said.
He said large-scale removal of plastic marine debris is not going to be cost-effective and is simply not feasible.
"This means we need to prevent plastic from entering the oceans in the first place through better waste management, more reuse and recycling, better product design and material substitution," he added.
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