Jean-Michel Cousteau Transcript
Marine Debris Speech Transcript
Honolulu, Hawaii
Friday, August 11, 2000

According to the Gulf of Mexico Program, October 1991, marine debris is trash in the ocean: any manufactured object accidentally or purposely put into the marine environment such as cans, bottles, crates, robe, packing materials, bags, sheeting, fishing lines and nets, net fragments, trawl webbing, cargo strapping bands, six-pack rings and other man-made items.

Marine debris represents the foremost natural resource management problem at the Padre Island National Seashore located a few miles south of Corpus Christi, Texas and includes aesthetics and impacts to marine mammals, birds and reptiles from entanglement and ingestion. Additionally, toxic chemicals and medical waste wash ashore and pose a safety hazard to the visiting public.

In 1987, the United States joined 39 other nations in signing the Plastics Act, thus ratifying Annex V of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from ships. These laws became known as MARPOL. This treaty bans the dumping of certain garbage by vessels at sea. It also limits the dumping of other vessel-generated garbage to specific distances from shore.

According to the United States Coast Guard and MARPOL regulations, plastics (food and non-food contaminated), and noxious liquid substances (bulk carriage), are not allowed to be discarded from vessels anywhere at anytime. In other words, there is to be no dumping of these materials anywhere in any ocean waters.

Trash (non-plastic) has no discharge from 0-3 nautical miles (nm) of the shoreline and from 3-12 nm, discharge is not permitted unless it is ground to less than one inch. From 12 to 50 nm, discharge is permitted. Hazardous substance discharge is not allowed unless permitted under Annex II of MARPOL.

The United States Coast Guard is a major responsible party for enforcement of such policies as MARPOL. They patrol our waters, as best they can, to ensure no illegal dumping is occurring. Other agencies, such as the National Park Service, also enforce rules regarding improper disposal of man-made waste left on our beaches by visitors to our National Parks.

What all this is dealing with is ocean-based sources of marine debris. Land based sources of marine debris can be cleaned using several methods. Corpus Christi Mayor, Loyd Neal, on July 10, 1997 at a "Meeting with the Mayor" mentioned that our drainage system does not work properly because of all the trash which finds its way into the gutters by citizens littering. This garbage winds up in our bay, the gulf, and on our shores because of the problems it (the trash) poses on the drainage system.

There are numerous organizations which do their part to clean our shores and waters. The Padre Island National Seashore has employees who clean the seashore seven days a week. Adopt-a-Beach has a chapter in Corpus Christi which sponsors programs aimed at cleaning our beaches as well. Nueces County and the City of Corpus Christi also have programs aimed at ridding our shores of garbage. Along portions of North Padre Island, workers are out on their bulldozers every morning removing sargassum and marine debris from large areas of our shores. If anyone has ever seen any coastlines in America and most of the world, they may agree with the authors in saying that our shoreline along the entire Coastal Bend is among the filthiest in all of the country.

These organizations cannot win this war against beach garbage alone. Our beaches and our coastline need everyone to work together, collectively, to make our region beautiful.

What can be done to prevent marine debris?

There are many ways in which individuals can help with the vast problem of marine debris. The easiest way is to not add to the problem while visiting the beach. Throw all your litter in the proper disposal areas. Also, be sure that when you take your garbage to the street corner for collection, have only those items allowed in landfills in the dumpsters. Dispose of all oil and other hazardous materials in the proper and legal fashion. Recycle all material that is labeled with recycling codes.

Although these actions seem to be common sense, however, it will take more than individuals taking personal responsibility to achieve these goals. Our community needs volunteers and civic organizations to participate in beach clean-up events. These should occur more often than the twice a year clean-ups already in progress.

There are organizations such as Keep Texas Beautiful, Inc, located in Austin, Texas, which organize beach clean-up events. Padre Island National Seashore is also very active in this issue, and they presently are working on several studies aimed at identifying the sources of marine debris and what the public perceives as marine debris. Contact the Padre Island National Seashore for more information on this study and how you can help. The Texas Adopt-A -Beach Program, organized through the Texas General Land Office, describes the various problems caused by the presence of plastics and trash in the marine environment and offers programs who's goal is to clean the beach.

John Rawls, in A Theory of Justice (1971) states that each generation has an obligation to future generations to preserve and protect our natural resources. Rawls argues that no one generation has a stronger claim on any natural resource than another. The problem with this idea lies in the willingness, or lack thereof, of present generations to respect the claims of future generations. Mankind is inherently self-interested (selfish) and lacks respect for other human beings, not to mention the lack of respect many humans have toward other living creatures.

If we as a society do not change our behaviors as related to our environment and one another, our children and grandchildren will not have the same simple pleasures we have, such as taking a safe, relaxing stroll along the shore. For further information and for ways you can become involved, contact your local officials (city council member, county commissioner, congressional representative (state or Federal) or Senator and encourage them to support bills which will give more funding for enforcement of the laws already on the books. The laws are there, it is our responsibility to make sure they are enforced.