E N V I R O N M E N TA L
Not In My Back-Yacht Marine industrial debris cleanup a constant need in Alaska By Tracy Barbour
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laska’s thriving maritime industry is supported by a variety of environmental companies and other organizations that help clear industrial debris from the state’s waterways and shoreline. These entities perform a multitude of duties to keep Alaska’s ecosystem as pristine as possible while combating a never-ending problem. Marine industrial debris—which often makes its way to the land—is a significant problem in Alaska. It involves every type of waste material that you can think of: from wrecked airplanes to fishing boats and hurricane debris, 96 | May 2021
says Chris Pallister, founder of Gulf Keepers of Alaska (GoAK). So what’s the most common type of marine debris Pallister sees? “By tonnage, it’s commercial debris: massive nets, big bundles of line, all kinds of buoys and fenders, fishing totes, drums, barrels, baskets, and crates,” he says. “Every time a boat goes down, you wind up with Styrofoam and busted boat components.” By quantity, consumer plastic is the most troublesome kind of debris that invades Alaska’s waterways and coastlines. “We are dealing with massive amounts of consumer plastics,” Pallister says. “Every time there is a catastrophe in the western pacific, it winds up on our side of the ocean because of the currents and wind.” The plastic comes from everywhere, and it’s a horrible problem that also impacts Alaska’s wildlife. Sea birds often endanger themselves eating plastic while sea lions and harbor seals have been known to chew on potentially harmful bleach bottles. “It’s an incredible environmental disaster that’s had far too much effort in combatting it,” Pallister says. Todd Duke, general manager of compliance services for Resolve Marine, attributes much of Alaska’s marine industrial debris to what he refers to as the “Amazon effect.” People quarantined at home for the past year have been using their disposable income to shop on Amazon. com. Mobile containers loaded with their purchases have been placed on ships bound for Alaska waters, but some of them never reached their destination. “In the past year, there have been at least five significant cases where the
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