EU officials stumble on bamboo shark eggs during beach cleaning operation

By Kornrawee Panyasuppakun 
The Nation

 

 

The ambassador of the European Union, Pirkka Tapiola, and 60 other EU staff took part in a beach cleaning activity on Koh Sak, Pattaya, last Friday and found two hatched eggs of gray bamboo shark on the beach filled with plastic debris.

 

 

“The fact that we found the eggs is very encouraging,” said Wayne Phillips of Mahidol University International College, who ran a long-term research on marine plastics and the restoration project of coral reefs on Koh Sak.

 

 

According to him, bamboo sharks are quite tasty and have often been hunted by local fishermen. However, the fishing industry is not their only threat. What worries the marine scientist is the marine plastics – straws, cotton buds, bottle caps, plastic bags, fishing gear, and even a human-size broken trash bin – that the EU ambassador, diplomats and their Thai staff found on the shore side by side with the eggs. 

 

Wayne said marine plastics float on the ocean for a long time and absorb marine chemicals, making them smell like food for marine animals.

 

 

The tasty odour, scientifically called dimethyl sulfide (DMS), makes many marine lives like fish, birds, and sharks mistake plastics for food, he said. Grey bamboo sharks lay eggs on the seaweed, and once the baby hatches, “it will start looking for food, which makes me worry if it is going to eat that [tiny piece of plastic,]” he said.

 

 

Plastic pollution and marine litter have become a global concern. Across the world, plastics make up as much as 85 per cent of beach litter, EU Ambassador Pirkka Tapiola said. If the current trends continue, there could be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050, he said. 

 

“We need to be conscious every time we take a plastic bag from the shops and every time we take a straw, it is very likely that they will end up in the marine environment,” he said. 

 

 

The EU recently adopted the European Strategy for Plastics to reduce plastic waste. It aims to extract maximum value from all products and waste through greater recycling and reuse and promotion of sustainable consumption.

 

 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30356418

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-10-15

1 hour ago, webfact said:

straws, cotton buds, bottle caps, plastic bags, fishing gear, and even a human-size broken trash bin – that the EU ambassador, diplomats and their Thai staff found on the shore side by side with the eggs

Little Seahorse was having none of it .. His best new buddy was a cotton bud and besides it helped keep his lug 'oles clean .. 

 

Edited October 14, 20187 yr by Justgrazing
Sp

What the hell has ocean pollution in Thailand got to do with the European Union? Seems like a paid full-time jolly holiday for the 60 members of staff. Do you think there are 60 staff members in your countries' embassy? No wonder people voted for Brexit.

39 minutes ago, champers said:

60 staff members in your countries' embassy?

They're maybe from the British Embassy with nothing to do now they have no income letters to write?

Pity they were using plastic bags to collect the refuse

..these spokespeople should clean up their own backyards before criticizing other countries who are trying their best...who knows what country, craft this rubbish came from!

No problem  here folks, just stay off the filthy beaches and stay on the currently ruptured walkways.

On 10/15/2018 at 7:45 AM, champers said:

What the hell has ocean pollution in Thailand got to do with the European Union? Seems like a paid full-time jolly holiday for the 60 members of staff. Do you think there are 60 staff members in your countries' embassy? No wonder people voted for Brexit.

EU Mandarins' salaries are many times those of the German chancellor or the PM. Even that bearded failed bookseller, Martin Schulz, quickly has become a millionaire... 

 

There was a video showing these MEPs sprint through the door, sign in and fly home.d fly home. 

60!, Wonder how much that little jaunt cost,

the quicker the UK gets out of that club the

better.

regards worgeordie

The ambassador of the European Union, Pirkka Tapiola, and 60 other EU staff took part in a beach cleaning activity on Koh Sak, Pattaya,....

Just this masquerading beiing a ambassador , ... there is no state "EU" so there cant be an EU ambassador!

 

https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/thailand/37994/introducing-our-new-ambassador-ambassador-pirkka-tapiola_en

 

unbelievable- they (who is that?) installed something what they called "EU embassador" in Thailand. Thats what they (who ?) are aiming for: the total end of the sovereign states in Europe and replaced by the central EU state.

They (who is that?) never asked the population in these European countries but they are aiming to build this EU state in the last 70 years.

and are even planing to replace the original population with non-European people

 

 

On 10/15/2018 at 5:02 AM, Justgrazing said:

Little Seahorse was having none of it .. His best new buddy was a cotton bud and besides it helped keep his lug 'oles clean .. 

 

I hear he's keen to form a baton twirling troupe if anyone's interested... 

I commend those cleaning the beach, however the problem requires an education based solution and of course a reduction in the manufacture and use of plastics as well.