"Fiberglass revolutionized boating, but decades later, discarded and degraded vessels are adding to marine pollution. We can do something about it."
"Oysters first alerted marine biologist Corina Ciocan to an overlooked global marine pollution crisis.
Ciocan, a marine biologist at the University of Brighton in England, has worked since 2018 on an ongoing study of plastics pollution in Chichester Harbour, an outwardly idyllic boat-dotted inlet a two-hour drive southwest of London.
Chichester waters have long supported a fishery—16th-century wooden fish traps dot the salt marsh areas of the nearby Medmerry nature reserve. Chichester itself is around 2,000 years old, with the Romans establishing the town soon after their invasion of England’s south coast. For centuries, fishers harvested oysters in abundance from the harbor, exporting them to London and mainland Europe. During one peak period of the oyster trade—the 1670s to 1720s—records show some 800,000 oysters exported in just one year. Today, the shores of Chichester’s estuary still offer a relatively undeveloped stretch of shoreline, an anomaly that the Romans would still recognize on England’s crowded southern coast. The estuary is a haven for a wide variety of sea life from crabs and lobsters to seals, as well as key aquatic plants such as kelp, which many now see as vital tools in removing carbon from the oceans. The area is a haven for avian life, too, and home to Medmerry and Pagham Harbour nature reserves, overseen by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, where bird lovers can see species including black-tailed godwits, little terns, and pintails."
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