Poster abstracts and manuscripts from the Third International ...

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translate this awareness into effective individual action. This
involved targeting merchant shipping companies, the South African
Navy, commercial fishing companies, yacht clubs, construction,
commercial and industrial companies, schools, and many
conservation and public interest organizations as well as the
general public. Large numbers of information pamphlets and
stickers were distributed, beach clean-up programs were
instituted, and manufacturers of especially harmful products were
encouraged to use alternative technologies. Some examples of
successful product substitution include the phasing out of 6-pack
yokes, removal of packing straps and plastic liners from fishing
bait boxes, and the design of integral caps and seals for a
variety of marine lubricant bottles. More generally, there has
been pressure to reduce overpackaging and to introduce refill
packs.
Awareness was also created among government departments and South
African legislators and in 1988 the campaign was tabled in
Parliament when pamphlets were distributed to members of all
Houses. South Africa promulgated MARPOL Annex V regulations in
1991 and the following year DAPG launched its MARPOL Annex V
Educational Project with the specific aim of educating the
commercial fishing industry about the hazards of plastic,
pollution and about the regulations. This project, brought about
by presentations, literature and notices on vessels and at
harbours, was extremely successful in changing disposal
practices.
The Prevent Plastic Pollution campaign has extended to
Antarctica, Namibia and islands in the southern Atlantic and
Indian Oceans. Under its umbrella DAPG began working on the high
seas drift/gillnet issue in 1988 to reduce incidental mortality
of non-target species from both active and "ghost" nets. As a
result, anti-driftnet legislation was promulgated in both South
Africa and Mauritius, and a computerized list of Asian fishing
vessels operating in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans was
compiled and distributed internationally to facilitate the
efficient tracking of driftnet vessels.
Ryan, Bruce
Underwater Debris
Center for Marine
Cleanup Project
Conservation, St. Petersburg, Florida, USA
Marine debris found on beaches around the world is a problem that
is easy to see, and one that many people have volunteered to
cleanup. But what about the trash found underwater? This
problem is not seen by the average beach user, but trash does lie
hidden beneath the water.
Encountering underwater debris is one experience that SCUBA
divers wish they did not have. But divers around the world are
part of the growing number of volunteers helping to identify the
sources of trash. Now we have eyes underwater helping to tell
the story about trash we cannot see from land.
Among the more than 200,000 volunteers who helped at the 1993