June 26, 2009 - The recent search for wreckage from the crash of Air France Flight 447 off the coast of Brazil has highlighted a tragedy of a different sort: marine litter that biodegrades slowly and kills sea turtles, birds, fish, and marine mammals. Marine litter is so abundant that Brazilian authorities sounded a false alarm when they found what they thought was wreckage from the downed plane, when in fact, it was run-of-the-mill garbage.

In early June, the U.N. released a report that made the first attempt to take stock of the global marine litter problem by examining 12 major bodies of water around the world. The report found that plastic makes up about 80 percent of the trash collected in these zones. It also said that a large part of waste that winds up in the oceans started out on land, and recommends how to curtail the problem.

The National Research Council recommended strategies for mitigating plastic waste and garbage from ocean vessels in its 1995 report Clean Ships, Clean Ports, Clean Oceans: Controlling Garbage and Plastic Wastes at Sea. And last year, the Research Council put out Tackling Marine Debris in the 21st Century, which recommends a zero-discharge policy for ocean-based garbage disposal, and urges the U.S. to establish protocols and take the lead in the mitigation of this worldwide problem.

• United Nations Environment Programme on Marine Litter
• NOAA Marine Debris program