SOCIETY- PLASTIC- ENVIRONMENTSelection of research undertaken by Nelson Mandela University

Dr Bernadette Snow & Prof Janine Adams

Presentation for Oceans day – Norway in South Africa, CPUT 1 November 2018

Faculty of Arts Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences Faculty of Education Faculty of Engineering, the Built Environment and Information Technology Faculty of Health Sciences Faculty of Law Faculty of Science

INSTITUTE FOR COASTAL AND MARINE RESEARCH

Be a leading ocean sciences institute, conducting cutting-edge research, building capacity andadvancing our understanding of the coastal & marine environment, to serve the needs ofSouth Africa, the continent and beyond in a sustainable manner.

© Paul-Pierre Steyn

Global ChangeLiving Resources

and Food SecurityBiodiversity and

Conservation

OCEANOGRAPHYWhere does it all go?

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/what-will-it-take-get-plastics-out-ocean

https://i.amz.mshcdn.com/iIosSHRV25cJ6kZVmghaOgsm0fw=/950x534/filters:quality(90)/2015%2F08%2F05%2Fd0%2FOceanCurren.70f80.jpg

http://awesomeocean.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/title-3.jpg

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52e1b262e4b06ef060506756/t/5b145dfc0e2e7280eed1d788/1513109913218/5GYRES+copy.jpg

PARTICLE DRIFT SIMULATIONS AS A TOOL TO TRACK MARINE PLASTIC DEBRIS

Ocean Dynamics of the Shelf and Bays of the Eastern Agulhas Bank:

A Process-Oriented Numerical Modelling Study used to identify "hot-spots" of accumulation for cleanup operations.

OCEANOGRAPHY AND NURDLES

Nurdle drifters around South Africa as indicators of ocean structures & dispersion (Schumann & Mackay, submitted)

~ 49 tons = two billion small micro plastic nurdles – spilled into Durban Harbour 10 October 2017

Collection efforts – nine months later less than 20% had been found.

Connectivity of different ocean regions & Dispersion of pollutants

https://zululandobserver.co.za/wp-content/uploads/sites/56/2017/11/nurdle_48504_tn.jpg

https://www.goodthingsguy.com/environment/nurdles-sa-beaches/

PLASTIC PARTICLE DEBRIS

Modelling the accumulation and transport of floating marine micro-plastics around South Africa (Collins & Hermes 2018)

Trajectories of 20 randomly selected Low Density particles exported to the South Atlantic Ocean (black) and Indian Ocean (blue). Background shading and arrows represent the mean surface circulation as resolved by the model

https://eos.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/marine-debris-surfer-wave.jpg

PLASTIC PARTICLE SIMULATION

Virtual particles travel along the coast of South Africa deployed from similar locations and end up in completely different regions along our coast. - Mike Hart-Davis (MSc Oceanography)

Simulation of plastics entering the ocean from the source of marine outfall in the Port Elizabeth coastline [Papenkuils]. Colours represent the particles age.

Importance of understanding

plastic disbursement

and aging process

https://asset-manager.bbcchannels.com/i/2f6w10k80001000

ENVIRONMENTImpact of plastic waste

https://static.independent.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2017/09/28/17/plastic-indonesia.jpg?w968h681

http://tryforgood.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/plastic-impacts-on-health.jpg

https://ianlboyd.wordpress.com/tag/plastic-bags/http://www.greenhome.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/plastic-turtle.jpg

https://www.reusethisbag.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/plastic-animal-impact.jpg

RESEARCH ON FISH CONSUMPTION

© Nadine Strydom

© Nadine Strydom

© Steven Mc Gregor

Mullet are important prey –

consumption of plastic and potential transport of chemicals into the food chain for humans

track the source, fate and behaviour of plastics in the surfzone.

SMALL BURROWING PETRELS AS INDICATORS OF ECOSYSTEM CHANGES AND PLASTIC POLLUTION

Seabirds as biosamplers of pollution (including plastic pollution in the Southern Ocean)

Geographic Area

Species

Example: Skua regurgitations from Inaccessible Island (Tristan da Cunha; Sep. 2018)

ENTANGLEMENT OF FUR SEALS

© Frikkie van der Vyver https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/11/77/7f117753c1dea1105442d70de332cb44.jpg

Greg Hofmeyr

Beach strandings

Recovery of microplasticsfrom systematically collected seal faeces

IT EDUCATIONBasic coding development and art meet

https://www.rnews.co.za/images/cmsimages/big/news_22321_28501_coding2.jpg

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3l8W1vgdIiJGnNWPwDDbzO-7CTGOoBJiNUu5AZ9BI1eza374kqFknEJnDbJtLKa-GEEFK37GOIQTg0msvZlMx1GLWDVYThw=s750

https://web.facebook.com/ArtomboArt?_rdc=1&_rdrhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csF8Zoi1TzY&feature=youtu.be

Board and Card Game

Introduces kids to programming concepts, while educating them

on “Plastics in the Ocean”

• Mobile app launched on Google PlayStore• Simulates the board game• Players move boats around on a grid, using paper tokens and image recognition• The object is to remove “plastic tokens” from the ocean, and then answer multiple

choice questions related to plastics in the ocean.

• BOATS is being used across the province by Govan Mbeki Maths Development Centre.

Hamar Norway, Children playing BOATS at the Stopested Verdenchildren’s festival

ADMINISTRATION, ECONOMICS & DEVELOPMENT

Waste management, sustainable development

http://cycle-trend.com/V1/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PPPPP.png

https://cms.groupeditors.com/img/5bda45f3-c954-4d18-8af0-e2f6e410d7f8.jpg?crop=0,8,335,343&w=400&h=400&scale=both

https://www.huonvalley.tas.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/waste-management-1.jpg

http://5.imimg.com/data5/WR/WB/MY-12611952/zero-garbage-

concept-3a-solid-waste-management-250x250.jpg

TRANSITIONING TOWNSHIPS

http://cs.mg.co.za/crop/content/images/2017/04/06/ipad87joslovoopening2015-506.jpg/800x450/

© Janet Cherry

© Janet Cherry

© Janet Cherry

Transition away from a fossil-fuel based economy in the current global context of climate change.

Transition to a new model of economic development - sustainable livelihoods in an integrated & localised economy (Cherry 2017).

Living laboratories….

STUDENT RESEARCH

IMPROVING WASTE MANAGEMENT WITHIN A SELECTED SOUTH AFRICAN MUNICIPALITY (Saaiman, MBA. 2013) RECYCLING AS A STRATEGY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN

COFIMVABA (Mniki, MA Development Studies, 2015) REFUSE COLLECTION MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN THE BUFFALO CITY

MUNICIPALITY (Damane, MA Public Administration, 2012) IMPROVING INTEGRATED WASTE MANAGEMENT WITH COMMUNITY

EDUCATION PROGRAMMES: THE CASE OF NEW BRIGHTON IN THE NELSON MANDELA BAY MUNICIPALITY (Adams, MA Public Administration, 2015) The role of waste management in urban sustainability: Case study Bluewater Bay

(Hartmann, MA Development Studies, 2013) Effects of poor solid waste management on sustainable development in informal

settlements (Mgwebi, MA Development Studies, 2013)

http://www.8brand.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/d2.jpghttps://i.ytimg.com/vi/MB96Tzs1Hh0/maxresdefault.jpg

LAW AND GOVERNANCElegislation

http://www.greenhome.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/BantheBag.jpg

EFFECTIVENESS OF POLLUTION LAWS IN SOUTH AFRICA

What legal instruments (hard and soft law instruments) are in place at an international level that assign obligations on member States to address the issue of marine plastic pollution? Assesses the extent to which South African pollution laws have been

developed and implemented in line with international obligations, by unpacking section 24 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (the Constitution) as a two-fold right which affords everyone firstly, a healthy environment that is not harmful to human health and wellbeing and secondly which places a duty on the State to implement legislative and other measures to protect the environment.

(Bathobile Vilakazi, LLM Research, Current)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c1wexEcLjIE/TiC2d56cyzI/AAAAAAAAAJY/L5Qjkqj80PI/s1600/GavelBag.jpg

ADVOCACY & ALGOA BAYawareness, warrior, change agent, citizen science

• Impact of macro- and microplastics on the marine faunaThe hydrological characteristics of the watershed with four rivers discharging into the bay, two of them draining through the city, the particularly windy climate, and the oceanographic currents accentuate the retention of significant plastic pollution in the bay (Ryan et al. 2018)

• nursery area for commercially valuable fish & squid species, important populations of marine top predators.

• world’s largest African Penguin and Cape Gannet colonies -Endangered.

• eastern-most population of Cape fur seals.

• global hotspot for bottlenose dolphins

• SAEON• MPA

SWARTKOPS ESTUARY : Catchment to coast approach

LITTER TRAP –MOTHERWELL CANAL

Interventions – best practice

December 2016 May 2017

Jobling et al. 2018WICKED PROBLEM

• research, knowledge and action needs to be co-created, collaborative and open

• LIVING LAB APPROACH

• a circular economy systems framework approach

VISION……to eliminate leakage of plastic to the Indian Ocean and land - air nexus by 2050,promoting lasting societal impacts, better environmental outcomes, improved health, moresustainable development pathways and new co-created economic opportunities

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Dr Eckhart Schumann (CMR RA)

Dr Juliet Hermes (CMR Board Member)

Michael Hart Davies (CMR Post Graduate)

Dylan Bailey (CMR Post Graduate)

Prof Nadine Strydom (CMR Member)

Dr Maelle Connan (CMR Post Doc)

Dr Lorien Pichegru (CMR member and Research Fellow)

Bathobile Vilakazi (CMR Post Graduate)

Prof Janet Cherry (CMR Member)

Oyama Mkaza (CMR student Assistant)

Prof Jean Greyling (CMR Member)

Steven Mc Gregor (CMR Post Graduate)

Prof Janine Adams (CMR Research Chair)

Prof Patrick Vrancken (CMR Research Chair)

Dr Greg Hofmeyr (CMR RA)

THANK YOUhttp://cmr.mandela.ac.za/