Even the groups that are talking about marine plastic
are reluctant to talk about what a lot of that plastic is,
which is fishing nets and fishing gear.
We hear about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
and say, "Isn't it terrible?
All our cotton buds and plastic bags are swirling around
in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch!"
46% of it is fishing nets!
Discarded fishing nets are far more dangerous for marine life
than our plastic straws.
Because they're designed to kill.
Now, this is so crashingly obvious.
Why aren't we talking about it?
Why aren't even the plastics campaigns talking about fishing?
How had I not heard about this?
Fishing vessels discard a massive amount of ropes and lines
and this was a major problem.
Today, some of the most remote places on Earth are awash with fishing gear.
Like Henderson Island in the Pacific Ocean.
And Svalbard in the Arctic Circle.
Looking closer at some of the whales washed up in the UK
where my journey began,
I discovered fishing gear was the main trash in their stomachs.
This was the whale in the room no one was talking about.
I even found longline fishing sets enough fishing lines
to wrap around the entire planet 500 times every single day.
Although no single fishery in the world deliberately targets sea turtles,
six out of seven species of sea turtle are either threatened or endangered.
Not because of climate change, or ocean pollution,
or plastics in the ocean, but because of fishing.
But this is an issue nobody wants to talk about.
If this was true, how come I'd never heard about it?
All the headings I'd ever seen focused on plastic straws,
so I decided to look into the research.
A global study estimated
a conservative 1,000 sea turtle deaths from plastic per year.
However, in the United States alone
250,000 sea turtles are captured, injured or killed every year
by fishing vessels.
A single sea turtle with a straw in its nose went viral.
Why wasn't this front-page news?
When I went on websites of marine organisations
tackling plastic pollution,
I found pages and pages encouraging people to stop using
everything from teabags to chewing gum,
but no mention whatsoever of what to do about fishing gear,
if they even mentioned it.
Instead, straws seemed to take up 99% of what these groups were talking about,
which became even more shocking when I found out plastic straws
only accounted for 0.03% of plastic entering the ocean.
Like trying to save the Amazon rainforest and stop logging by boycotting toothpicks.
Barely a drop in the ocean.
If fishing gear was such a problem,
why was my favourite plastic organisation not talking about it?
So, what's the main source of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
Microplastics.
For the Great Pacific Garbage Patch mostly microplastics.
The latest study showed that 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
is fishing nets,
and a majority of the other garbage were other types of fishing gear.
So wouldn't that be the majority?
No, I wouldn't say that the majority of the plastic
is fishing nets.
It's a mix of things.
But a majority means over 50%
and fishing related garbage in the Patch is over 50%.
Wouldn't that make it the majority?
Yes, so if it's close to 50%, then it's…
Yes, plastic fishing nets.
There is nothing that would compare to that ratio as far as one item.
But the overwhelming thing is that it's plastic fishing nets.
Is there something people can do to stop fishing net trash?
One thing that you could do is eliminate or really reduce
your intake of fish
and to really let those populations rebound,
and also that will eliminate as much materials being used
to get those fish.
Do you know why this important message isn't on your website?
I don't know. I don't make the website.
Talk to Dianna about it.
She's the founder, she can probably give you better answers.
Jackie said one of the ways to tackle the problem of fishing nets in the ocean
is to say no to eating fish.
I was wondering why you haven't put that message on your website.
A consumer message to eat less fish?
Yeah, it's not my area of focus.
I hear you, I don't have time. We have an event.
Turn off the cameras? Thanks.
I'm not interested in focusing there. I don't have an opinion about that.
I was talking about what people can do about fishing net trash in the ocean
and Jackie said we could eliminate or reduce fish consumption.
She didn't say eliminate fish, I know she didn't.
..is eliminate or really reduce your intake of fish.
-She did. -She didn't say, "Eliminate fish."
I had no idea what was going on.
Why was such a simple question receiving such backlash?
My only option was to follow the money, so I did.
And sure enough,
there it was.
They're not going to talk about fishing nets.
The Plastic Pollution Coalition
is the same organisation as the Earth Island Institute,
the same ones behind the Dolphin Safe tuna label,
who work with the industry to sell more seafood.
No wonder why they don't want to talk about the leading cause
of plastic pollution.
Now, it's entirely right to say that we must use far less plastic.
But even if not a single gram of plastic entered the oceans
from today onwards,
we would still be ripping those ecosystems apart,
because the biggest issue by far is commercial fishing.
It's not just far more damaging than plastic pollution,
it's far more damaging than oil pollution from spills.