Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)Marine Litter News
From East Asia Civil Forum on Marine LitterIn this volume:
1. Publishing an activity book for young children (Korea)
2. Workshop on debris from EPS floats held (Korea)
3. Response to the flotsam at the West Coast of North America that originated from the tsunami caused by the
3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake (Japan)
4. First Kansai “Marine Litter Summit” Ended on a High Note (Japan)
5. The exchange of beach cleanup experience in Macau (Taiwan)
6. Marine debris monitoring, a tough challenge for both Taiwan and China (Taiwan)
7. From the beach cleanup to chaning mindset (Thailand)
8. Research result on the impacts of marine debris on wildlife in Korea (Korea)
9. Plastics in the stomach of Tuna caught in Central North Pacific (Japan)

East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter
The East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter was established in October 2009 at the Marine Litter Summit in Shimonoseki, Japan. The Forum iscomposed of NGOs from Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Taiwan. We welcome more participation from other NGOs from east asian countries.

ACTIVITIES
1. Publishing an activity book for young children in Korea
By Ms. Sunwook Hong, President of OSEAN
oceanook@nate.com

Recommended Citation:
Hong, Sunwook. (2012). Publishing an activity book for young children in Korea, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine
Litter, Vol 3(2): 2.

An activity book for young children on marine debris waswith which young students can feel the pain of the wildlife damaged

published in December 2012 in South Korea. The book under thefrom marine debris, and understand the importance of our daily life

subject, “Let us listen to the sea”, was made with the artworks by

behaviors. OSEAN will distribute it to any school teachers who are

Professor Jeong-Ah Kim, a member of OSEAN, with cooperativeinterested in marine environment.

work with OSEAN. The book, 20pages, is composed of nine activities★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★
★★★★★★★

07

하늘로 날리는 풍선, 나중에는 어떤 일이 생길까요?
일이 일어난 순서대로 그림에 번호를 붙여 보세요.

어떤 일이 있었는지 우리 함께 생각해 이야기 해 봅시다.

1
14

* Activity book for children about marine debris impact on wildlife* Students using the activity book at school (Dec. 21, 2012)
Marine Litter News_ 2

15

2. Workshop on debris from EPS ﬂoats held
By Mr. Yong Chang Jang, researcher in OSEAN
yongchangjang@hotmail.com

Recommended Citation:
Jang, Yong Chang. (2012). Workshop on debris from EPS ﬂoats held, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter, Vol3(2): 3-4.

Expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam) float is massively used foraquaculture in the coastal area of Korea. According to Korea National
Marine Debris Monitoring Program, under which the beached debris
in 20 sites round the nation is monitored every two months, the EPS
ﬂoat debris is the most abundant item (MLTM, 2009).
OSEAN (Our Sea of East Asia Network), an NGO in Korea,
has devoted itself to solving the Styrofoam debris problem from its
establishment in 2009. Here is the procedure of three-year activities onsolving the problem. The result of the workshop on EPS ﬂoat held on* The EPS ﬂoat debris in a Korean island

October 25, 2012 in Geoje Island in Korea is summarized.

* Procedures of the workshop from 2010 to 2012
Year
Date
Number of participants

2010
Dec 7
15

2011
Nov 1
55

2012
October 25
90participants fromEPS Association, Researchers

Local government ofﬁcials,
Researchers

Local government ofﬁcials,
Researchers,
Manufacturers

Main activities

Knowledge sharing and problem
deﬁnition

Brainstorming and discussion

Conceptual model and Analytic
Hierarchy Process

Main outcomes

Understanding the problem

Finding the alternatives of policy
measures

Evaluating the priority of the policy
measures

OSEAN began to ﬁnd the stakeholders of the EPS ﬂoat issues in2009. The Korea Foam-Styrene Recycling Association (http://www.
eps.or.kr/) agreed with us that EPS debris is a serious problem. From
2010, the Association has been ﬁnancially supporting OSEAN to holdthe workshop on EPS debris and recycling every year.

* At the workshop in 2011, the participants polled with marks for thebest policy measures.
3_ Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)

ACTIVITIESThe main activities at the workshop in 2012 were conceptual

the priority of the measures. In the AHP, 16 policy measures,modeling and evaluating the priority of the measures by Analytic

developed from the ideas collected at the workshop in 2011, were

Hierarchy Process (AHP). A conceptual model is a tool for visually

evaluated. The participants assessed the effectiveness, efficiency,

depicting the context within which a project is operating (Margoluis

acceptability, and implementability of the each policy measure.

et al., 2009). By displaying the factors influencing the problematic

We are planning to make a full-length report on the result of thesituation, we can ﬁnd the appropriate actions to be taken to solve theworkshop. From the report, the best policy measures on EPS ﬂoat willproblem. And, Analytic Hierarchy Process is a way of evaluating

be developed. We will spread the report to the participants and to thepriority of alternatives in hierarchy (Saaty, 2008). All the participants

policy decision makers so that they can use the information. We willfrom local and central governments, industry, research institutes, andcontinue our activities until the EPS float marine debris problem is

NGOs participated in improving the conceptual model and evaluating

solved clearly.

* About 90 stakeholders participated to the workshop in 2012

Acknowledgement
We thank the Korea Foam-Styrene Recycling Association and Young-nam Sea Grant for the ﬁnancial support. We thank Ministry of Land,
Transportation and Marine Affairs, Gyeongnam Provincial Government, Jeonnam Provincial Government, and Geoje Municipal Government
for the administrative support.

References
Margoluis, Richard, Caroline Stem, Nick Salafsky, Marcia Brown. (2009). Using conceptual models as a planning and evaluation tool inconservation, Evaluation and Program Planning, 32: 138–147.
MLTM (Ministry of Land, Transportation and Marine Affairs). (2009). 2008 Annual Report of the National Marine Debris Monitoring Program,
MLTM.
Saaty, Thomas L. (2008). Decision Making for Leaders: The Analytic Hierarchy Process for Decision in a Complex World, RWS Publications,
Pittsburgh, PA, 343p.

Marine Litter News_ 4

3. Response to the Flotsam at the West Coast of North America that Originatedfrom the Tsunami Caused by the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake – Further
Responses and Future Plans
By Ms. Kojima Azusa, Director of JEAN & Ms. Yoshiko Ohkura, International Liaison and Information Manager of JEAN
y_ohkura@jean.jp

Recommended Citation:
Azusa, Kojima, Yoshiko Ohkura. (2012). Response to the Flotsam at the West Coast of North America that Originated from the Tsunami Causedby the 3.11 Great East Japan Earthquake – Further Responses and Future Plans, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter,
Vol 3(2): 5-6.

In August of this year, JEAN received a commission from theJapanese Ministry of the Environment (MOE) to conduct a meeting

raised about how to collect such ﬂotsam landed on shores which have
limited access.

with US non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and exchange
opinions regarding the flotsam and response. Apart from JEAN

After the August visit to Portland, in order to share the information

and Japanese researchers, the attendees were members from Ocean

we gained from the visit, JEAN set up a brief meeting with

Conservancy (OC), International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) coordinatorsorganizations with which we have communicated through cleanups,

from Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii, as welland also those that have continued supporting the disaster affected

as MOE officers and members from US governmental offices

areas in Japan. According to the MOE prediction model, soon,and organizations, such as the National Oceanic Atmosphericwooden housing materials may reach close to the US West Coast area

Administration (NOAA). We had a ﬁeld inspection at Cannon Beachand part of such driftage (about 40,000 tons) could wash ashore. As

near Portland, Oregon, followed by a two-day meeting.

of October 2012, however, mass driftage has not yet been recognized.
We need to watch the possible driftage with care. We consider that it

At the meeting, NGO representatives introduced their regularis important to continue our actions of collecting trash on beaches, toactions and the appearance of the coasts of each state before and after

support those groups and people who have worked for the existing

the tsunami disaster. Then, we discussed whether they found any

problem of marine litter or conservation of the marine environment,

ﬂotsam seemingly related to the tsunami, concerns over such ﬂotsam,and to have dialogues and information sharing among NGOs. In

and expected support from Japan or other sources at the international

parallel work, to apply for grant funding or raise funds from the private

level. A broad array of topics were covered including methods tosector, we will bring forward such collaborative efforts by working

dispose the collected trash, technology of trash recycling, and invasive

together with other organizations in Japan.

foreign species that could be adhered to such ﬂotsam and enter the US
West Coast area.

JEAN applied for and successfully was entrusted with the publicly
offered project, “Work of Japan-US NGOs Coalition Promotion,

Although at Cannon Beach, we did not find any articles that

Inquest and Addressing Information in Japan in Relation to Floating

might be related to the tsunami, in Alaska, there had been quite a large

Objects Associated with the Great East Japan Earthquake, Term

amount of polystyrene foam ﬂoats among other things washed up on

in Fiscal Year 2012” posted by the Environmental Restoration andthe shores, according to the ICC coordinator of the state. Boats andConservation Agency. JEAN started implementation of the project

portions of huge objects were reported as landed on shores or ﬂoatingwith several Japanese and American NGOs.

near the coast as many of you might have heard. Concerns were

5_ Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)

ACTIVITIES
1. Objectives and Actions

We will start from Hawaii in January 2013. An inspection teamof about 10 people from the above mentioned groups, as well as a few(1) On-site investigations will be conducted so that NGOs

government officials will carry out on-site inspections and surveys

and other organizations from the U.S. and Japan can respondon beaches of Hawaiian islands, and a cleanup and trash survey,

collaboratively, and (2) results of on-site investigations will be reported

followed by a one-day workshop with help from the Hawaii Stateto relevant parties in Japan, and preparations will be made for response

ICC coordinator. Island coordinators, academic researchers, state

after spring of next year. In addition, the issue of “marine litter” thatgovernment ofﬁcials and NOAA in Hawaii will be invited.

existed from before will also be publicized widely to the Japanesesociety.

Coincidentally, during our visit, there will be a community
cleanup at Kamilo Point, a ragged beach on Hawaii Island, so we will

2. Outline of Projectarrange our schedule to join the cleanup. Kamilo is known as a beachthat attracts much marine litter because of its geographical location.

(1) Establishment of Exploratory Committee

We are wondering if we will ﬁnd any objects washed ashore from thetsunami after the earthquake; and if we do, what kinds of items will

Establish a committee consisting of Japanese NGOs, NPOs andthey be?

foundations, and researchers on the marine litter problem.
(2) Implementation of on-site investigations(a) Oahu and Hawaii Islands of the state of Hawaii: Conduct
recovery and survey, and hold opinion exchange meeting with local
NGOs and other organizations of the coasts.
(b) Portland suburbs, Oregon State: Hold a small-scale forumwith local residents, relevant NGOs and relevant local governments.
Report on state of the areas (coast) stricken by the Great East Japan
Earthquake.
(3) Hold forums in Japan* A scene at Canon Beach--Local people were quite surprised withgroup including foreigners who were followed by many media crews
with cameras and microphones.

In two locations, Tokyo and Sendai (area stricken by Great East
Japan Earthquake), report results of on-site investigations as well as
deepen understanding of marine litter issue that has existed from thepast. Toward holding these forums in March 2013, conduct schedulingwith relevant parties from disaster-stricken area.
Members of the Exploratory Committee consist of organizations
such as an organization conducting continuous support to the area
stricken by the earthquake, an ICC site captain who does underwatercleanups, an NGO dedicated to the support of people in turmoil, an
NPO working for the problem of marine debris at Midway Atoll, andacademic researchers on the issue.

Marine Litter News_ 6* The Hawaii State ICC coordinator’s presentation.

4. First Kansai “Marine Litter Summit” Ended on a High Note
By Ms. Kojima Azusa, Director of JEAN & Ms. Yoshiko Ohkura, International Liaison and Information Manager of JEAN
y_ohkura@jean.jp

Recommended Citation:
Azusa, Kojima, Yoshiko Ohkura, (2012). First Kansai “Marine Litter Summit” Ended on a High Note, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil
Forum on Marine Litter, Vol 3(2): 7.

The 10th Marine Litter Summit was held in Kameoka City,
Kyoto, in August 2012. On the first day was fieldwork in which
participants observed trash on the river banks or caught in the trees,
while enjoying each boatman’s watermanship. There was a stop at one
river bank to get off from the boats, and we did a cleanup and trashsurvey. During the integral discussion program held on the second
and third days, lively exchange of opinions took place on topics suchas deposit systems for waste disposal and means of preventing trash
generation with cooperation among river basin communities.
After closing the summit, we also conducted wrap up lessons
at four municipal elementary schools, which also participated in the
preliminary event. It seemed to be a good opportunity to learn about
the problem of marine litter afresh, through the trash entanglement
simulation experience and by hands-on experience on a real andinteresting driftage other than trash.

* A scene at Canon Beach--Local people were quite surprised withgroup including foreigners who were followed by many media crews
with cameras and microphones.

* 71 people participated for the ICC survey. We retrieved 68 30-liter
bags of trash totaling 220kg, including many plastic beverage bottles(PET bottles).

* Integral discussion program on Aug. 25, 2012

7_ Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)

ACTIVITIES
5. The Exchange of Beach Cleanup Experience in Macau
By Mr. Wyland Lai, Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation, a member group of TOCA
wyland.tw@yahoo.com.tw

Recommended Citation:Lai, Wyland. (2012). The Exchange of Beach Cleanup Experience in Macau, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter,
Vol 3(2): 8-9.

Kuroshio Ocean Education Foundation of Taiwan was invited to

Our friends in Macau expressed that, due to the intermixing ofparticipate in the “Farewell—Marine Culture Exchange Program” ofresidential and commercial buildings, it was difficult to separate

the “12th Macau City Fringe Festival” in November, 2012. During

household garbage and commercial waste. Secondly, lacking

the almost month-long marathon of events, the Kuroshio Foundation

supportive industries and agriculture, recyclable waste could not be

contributed indoor artistic and environmental events as well as aprocessed and remade into other products in Macau. Therefore, thecleanup activity along the local coast, which revealed an untold story of

incentive to classify garbage for recycling was low. Incineration is thethe marine debris of Macau.

only method of waste treatment in Macau. Since 1998, the Macaugovernment began promoting separation of garbage for recycling

Hualien City, where Kuroshio Foundation is located, is similar in

into 3 categories: paper, metal containers, and plastic bottles. Glass,area to Macau, although the population of Macau is 5 times higher.

kitchen waste, and disposable tableware were not collected. Without aCasinos and tourism are major contributors to the growing economy incomprehensive recycling program, however, it is worrisome that thethis most densely populated region in the world, and as a consequencecurrent incinerator might shorten its life span, and thus pollution of thethe volume of garbage is continually increasing. According to the local

environment would continue uncontrolled.

studies, a tourist generates 3 times more waste than a citizen. With the
expanding popularity and prosperity of tourism, how would the Macau

During our visit, the 12th Macau Food Festival was held at the

government face the challenge? And how does the marine debris of

nearby Sai Van Lake Square on the 9th to the 25th of November.

Macau differ from that of Taiwan?

Visitors filled the plaza where they sampled foreign and local foodsand enjoyed various shows and events. A large billboard exclaimed

The Kuroshio Foundation has conducted coastal cleanups of“If 1 person uses 2 pairs of disposable chopsticks, 500,000 people will

marine debris around Taiwan for more than 10 years, and so a similar

consume 250 trees. The total height of all the chopsticks used will beapproach was taken in Macau. Thirty volunteers spent more than 2equal to the height of 577 Macau Tower.” Even though the intention ofhours picking up garbage under the Taipa end of the Sai Van Bridge.

environmental protection was obvious, few visitors brought their own

The volunteers worked hard but because of the large volume of garbage

tableware. Most booths provided disposable food containers and plastic

present on the shoreline only about three-fourths could be picked upbags. Disposable plastic ware covered the tables and filled the trash

at this time. One week later we went back to the same site and saw

bins. The Environmental Protection Service of Macau governmentthat the amount of marine debris had increased by visual estimation toreleased the news of “Program of reducing garbage in the food festival”

40% of the original amount before the ﬁrst cleanup. This site had veryon Nov. 24th. Questionnaires collected during the festival revealed thatfew neighboring residents and visitors, therefore; it was assumed that

20.5% of the interviewees said that they were willing to bring their own

most of the garbage was brought there by the waves rather than directly

food utensils but that only 8% actually brought them to the festival.

littered by on-site persons. Curiously, the percentage of recyclable

Clearly, there is still much to do to reduce waste in Macau.

waste in this marine debris was higher than that found around Taiwan.

Marine Litter News_ 8

The Macau government seems quite confident on theirincineration of waste program, combustion, which might be the resultof few options in this small place. The incinerator has expanded its
facilities and optimized the processing capacity to 1,728 tons per day,which is twice the amount of garbage produced per day. Perhaps
this high-capacity incineration may have dampened government
motivation for recycling efforts. The incinerator is capable of reducing
the solid mass of the original waste by 90%. However, all un-sorted
garbage sent to the incinerator would result in more complex gaseousand solid efﬂuent with increased potential health risk for the citizens.
The bottom ash is often used as landfill in coastal reclamation anddefinitely would pose threats to the health of both people and themarine environment.
In conclusion, we would like to emphasize the “3Rs” foreveryday life for people everywhere, including Macau. First R is
Reduce – reduce the amount of garbage from the source, we canchoose environmental friendly products with minimal and eco-safe
packaging. Second R is Reuse – repeatedly re-use most materials,
for example we can bring our own food utensils, water bottles, andshopping bags. Third R is Recycle – classify and recycle the garbage.
These 3Rs are the beginning to reduce garbage and to make ourcommunity environmentally safe.

9_ Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)

ACTIVITIES
6. Marine debris monitoring, a tough challenge for both Taiwan and China
By Ms. Hsiu-ju Sun, Taiwan Environmental Information Association, a member group of TOCA
justroam@gmail.com

Recommended Citation:
Sun, Hsiu-ju. (2012). Marine debris monitoring, a tough challenge for both Taiwan and China, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forumon Marine Litter, Vol 3(2): 10-11.

Though politically divided, Mainland China and Taiwan
are physically separated merely by the narrow Taiwan Straight,
hence environmental issues affecting both places are profoundlyinterrelated. Upon realizing this interconnectedness, Taiwan
Environmental Information Association began launchingexchange programs between environmental groups of Mainland
China and Taiwan since 2006 in order to foster discussion andshare best practices. In November 2012, nine representatives from
Mainland Chinese NGOs came to Taiwan for a 10-day program.
Apart from ﬁeld visits and workshops, these representatives also
partook in a conservation working holiday in which they gained
new perspectives and experiences in marine conservation andhelped remove marine debris on the coast of Taiwan.
The “Marine Debris Removal and Monitoring Working
Holiday” was hosted by Tainan Community College, aleading institution that has been involved in long term marine
conservation in the local area. The Chinese representatives werefirst briefed by lecturer Reiguang Zhou on their experiences inmarine debris removal and monitoring conducted previously, andwere shown picture slides of damages caused by marine debris,
including death of wildlife.
After the debriefing, the Mainland Chinese representatives
were brought to the estuary of Yenshui river, picked up sacks andgloves and started the cleanup. From afar, the landscape of theestuary looks beautiful; under close scrutiny though, unsightly
eye sores were revealed: countless plastic bags, styrofoam,
and enormous amount of marine debris generated by all kindsof human activities imaginable scattered across the beach.
Xiaohong Yi, the owner and protector of “Crocodile Island” ofFujen province of China stated that styrofoam pollution is also a
serious problem on his island The case gets even worse when the
styrofoam disintegrates overtime into tiny pieces, which makes

Marine Litter News_ 10

removing them all the more impossible!
Yonglong Chen, a marine conservationist in China, observed
the many shattered glass bottles and glass pieces on the beach. He
wondered why there were so many relatively new glass bottles ofa variety of colors on a mere 50m long stretch of beach? Reiguang
Zhou explained that many of these bottles have drifted here fromupstream, and many were left behind by sports ﬁsherman, alongwith plastic containers for bait and ﬁshing nylons.
Removing marine debris from the shore was no easy feat,but it did not just end there. Documentation of these debris was
also a consuming task. Categories for items were detailed andmeticulous. “We count each piece of garbage as one unit, because
one unit represents one act of picking up the garbage. If one bottle
breaks into three pieces, it becomes 3 pieces of garbage. Thiscounting method is adopted in order to emphasize the fact that if
we treated the waste properly before it is disposed of carelessly,
we could reduce all the extra work involved in cleaning it up
afterwards” explained Zhou. Within half an hour, 15 participatescollected 135 glass bottles on the 50m long stretch of beach,needless to say, this ﬁgure has not taken into account the countlesspieces of broken glass also collected.
Yonlong Liu compared the marine debris monitoring methodof Taiwan and Shanghai. In the marine debris removal projects
he heads in Shanghai, participants are generally broken into
groups of 3-4 people to collect waste and report the numbers onbehalf of their respective groups. The total numbers of debris
are generally not tallied up. The method adopted by Tainan
Community College has been modiﬁed and improved over time:
participants dispersed to collect debris, and gathered all the debris
in one place for categorization and documentation. Liu thinks thatto pile up all the debris collected in one place produces a graphic

visual presentation of marine pollution, and can be very powerfuland educational. Liu was inspired by the different methods ofdata collection and categorization used during the conservation
working holiday in Tainan. He believes that these are invaluable
practices to bring back to China as he conducts marine debris
removal and marine conservation education in the future.

11_ Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)

ACTIVITIES
7. From the beach cleanup to chaning mindset
By Ms. Kanyarat Kosavisutte, Secretary of GFA
footprint_architec@yahoo.com

Recommended Citation:
Kosavisutte, Kanyarat. (2012). From the beach cleanup to changing mindset, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter,
Vol 3(2): 12-13.

The recent ICC, on Sunday 16 September 2012, I organized abeach clean up with the seashore community whom I continued toused to carry sodium in order to keep
the jelly ﬁsh fresh.

work with through the workshop of making use of the marine debris
found during the clean up. The beach located not far from Koh Lanta

About the workshop, I separated it

where I established Loy Lay Art and Gallery in 2011. Thank you forinto two theme: ﬁrst using technology

several small funding I have been granted, one of which was fromto create useful product and second

OSEAN fundraising program (http://happylog.naver.com/osean.do)using the local skill and art to makeand another was from The Missing Shoes Project year II. The method

craft product from flip-flop andwas as simple as usual starting from cleaning up the beach, collecting

collected items.
In my ﬁrst workshop, I invited theProfessor from Rubber & Polymer
Science Technology of Prince ofSongkla University, Pattani campus situated at the further southernpart of Thailand who took sample of the ﬂip ﬂops from “The Missing
Shoes” project found during the beach clean up last year and studied
how we could play with the material. His experiment came into ourfirst workshop, the flip flops shredded into smaller pieces, blended

the data and submitting the data to ICC. We have separated whateverrecyclable and reusable out of whatever not reusable and not worth
recycle. That good stuff has been used as material in the workshop
while the bad stuff has been gone to the dumpsite.
The results shown that plastic bags were out numbers ofin with the mixer of Polyol and Isocyanate which were the bonding

everything else, 865 pieces and 114 sags. I later found out that theagent. The stuff was put in a mold compressed with weight until dry,cleanup site was the market where they sold the jelly fish caught

sounded very easy.

during the season. Everyday a large no. of bags and sags have been

Marine Litter News_ 12

The second workshop was into art. This workshop was led by a

workshop and it was very clear.
From the beach clean up to the workshop, I hope I find somepeople who are interested in the whole process we introduced. I hope
they really understood the cause and impact of Marine Debris and can
ﬁnally manage trash responsibly and really practice in their everyday
life.

friend who used to work for the National Park and has been collecting
Marine Debris as I do.
The third workshop I conducted myself. The flip flop has beentransformed to the beads and later were sewn to make basket, bag,placemat and so on.
The fourth workshop I introduced new material from trashwhich can be easily found and collected from everyday life, it’s the
packaging of aluminum foil. I have always been interested and would
like to deal with the material that cannot be recycle and only ended up
in the dumpsite. Aluminum can take up to 400 years to decomposed.
We played with the material by weaving and sewing them, at the end
after many trials and errors we found the method from the internet
said just fold them and interlock. The instruction was made for the

13_ Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)

RESEARCH
8. Research result on the impacts of marine debris on wildlife in Korea
By Mr. Yong Chang Jang, researcher in OSEAN
yongchangjang@hotmail.com

Recommended Citation:
Jang, Yong Chang. (2012). Marine debris impacts on wildlife, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter, Vol 3(2): 14-15.

Marine debris impacts on wildlife is regarded as one of the

we began to summarize the information.

most important damages that is brought about by the marine debris

We have summarized the cases in various viewpoints, and(Derraik, 2002). OSEAN began to pay attention to this issue fromanalyzed them. For example, leisure fishing explained more thanits establishment in 2009. In this year 2012, a book on marine debis

70% of the cases, which means we need to make effort to reduce

impacts on wildlife and a scientiﬁc journal paper was published, as themarine debris from leisure ﬁshing. As we thought we need to shareoutcomes of our activities.

the research process and result with more people, we published abook and a scientiﬁc journal paper. The pdf ﬁle of the book can be
downloaded from our website. The scientiﬁc journal paper (hong etal., 2012) can be purchased from the journal website.

*A Black-faced Spoonbill found on July 8, 2011 by Mr. Namjun Jeein Incheon City

For the research of marine debris impacts on wildlife, we adopted
the methods of citizen sciences. Citizen science is the process whereby
citizens are involved in science as researchers (Kruger et al., 2000).
So, we have invited all the citizens to our activities. We haveopened an website (www.osean.net) for the research of the marine
debris impacts on wildlife. Any citizen can access this website, sharethe information, and contribute to the research. We also held offline seminars several times to share the knowledge, to strengthen the
network, and to decide the way of research forward. In this year, whenvarious examples of marine debris impacts on wildlife were collected,

Marine Litter News_ 14* The seminar was held in Busan in 2011 with the ﬁnancial support
from Young Nam Sea Grant.

RESEARCH* Types of debris impacting marine wildlife in Korea

Types of Debris
Net
Hook
Rope
Line
Hook
Hook/Line
Lead Weight

Entanglement
6
1
1
3
5
4
-

Ingestion
15
1
1

6
1
1
3
20
5
1

Plastic Bands/Plastic Bags

3

-

3

3
(7.5%)

23(57.5%)17(42.5%)40

40(100%)Commercial Fishing

Leisure Fishing

Daily Lives

Total

Total
8
(20%)
29
(72.5%)We are planning to continue this activity. We will expand our research by inviting more citizens to participate in the research. And we will
make public policy suggestion based on the research result.

Acknowledgement
We thank all the citizen participant who share the valuable information on the marine debris impacts on wildlife. We thank the more thana thousand internet users who made donation for this project, and the Happy Bean Foundation who organized the donation project. We thank
Young Nam Sea Grant for the ﬁnancial support for the seminar held in 2011. We thank Korea Institute of Ocean Science & Technology for the
support for the publishing the journal paper

References
Derraik, JoséG.B. (2002). The pollution of the marine environment by plastic debris: a review, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 44(9): 842-852.
Hong, Sunwook, Jongmyoung Lee, Yong Chang Jang, Young Jun Kim, Hee Jong Kim, Donguk Han, Sang Hee Hong, Daeseok Kang, Won
Joon Shim. (in press). Impacts of marine debris on wild animals in the coastal area of Korea, Marine Pollution Bulletin
Kruger, L. E., Shannon, M. A. (2000). Getting to know ourselves and our places through participation in civic social assessment, Society andNatural Resources, 13: 461-478

15_ Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)

RESEARCH
9. Plastics in the stomach of Tuna caught in Central North Paciﬁc
By Dr. Shigeru Fujieda, Professor of Kagoshima University and board member of JEAN
fujieda@ﬁsh.kagoshima-u.ac.jp

Recommended Citation:
Fujieda, Shigeru. (2012). Plastics in the stomach of Tuna caught in Central North Paciﬁc, Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on
Marine Litter, Vol 3(2): 16.

I had an opportunity to go to Central North Pacific on board

is difﬁcult to separate these ﬂoating marine debris between Tsunami

Kagoshima University training vessel “Kagoshima-Maru(Phot.1) “debris and general marine debris, because both are mainly the samein this summer. Our subjects are visual observations of the drifting

plastic and general items. We are worried that the increasing plastic inmarine debris caused by Tsunami at last year. We found not only

the ocean would increase the number of accident by plastic. Of course,many drifting marine litter on the sea surface (Phot.2) but also much

this tuna was deliciously eaten by us.

small plastic debris by a neuston net ( Phot.3). And we caught about
one hundred tunas with students by long line fishing in the area of
31°N-32°N, 161°W-165°W. We found that a big eye tuna ingested therope (60cm) and sort oyster pipe (1.5 cm) (Phot.4).
In the Paciﬁc Ocean, a huge amount of plastic debris is ﬂoating. It* Kagoshima University training
vessel “Kagoshima-Maru”* Drifting marine debris with gatheringﬁshes* Sampling the small plastic debris bya neuston net

Marine Litter News_ 16* A plastic pipe and a rope found from a tuna stomach(Aug.28 2012, 32.2°N, 161°W)

What is East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter?
East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter is a network establishedin 2009, made of NGO groups dedicated to protection of marine
environment from marine litter in East Asia countries.

Network member groups are:Japan: Japan Environmental Action Network (JEAN)
South Korea: Our Sea of East Asia Network (OSEAN)
Thailand: Green Fins Association (GFA)
Taiwan: Taiwan Ocean Cleanup Alliance (TOCA)

To the readers,Marine Litter’ through which relevant NGOs and organizations in the
East Asia could share experiences and information and work together

East Asian countries are connected to each other environmentally,on the marine debris problems. OSEAN and JEAN have reachedgeographically, historically, or culturally through shared regional seas.

a consensus to launch the forum and publish biannual newsletters.

The East Asian region is one of the most dynamic economic centers

So we have launched the East Asian Civil Forum on Marine Litterwith some of the busies shipping lanes in the world. With the spread

and we are delivering marine debris news from member countriesof mass production and consumption over the last decades came

via e-mail to people who are concerned with this problem on local,

the huge increase in solid waste generation. There are, however, notnational, and regional levels. In late 2012 now, we have four members

enough waste treatment facilities and management measures, which

above. We hope that the forum could provide a venue for all of us tomakes the region vulnerable to marine debris pollution.

share our vision, experiences, and creative actions.

Entering the seas in large amounts, ﬂoating debris has become aThis is the first effort to link the East Asian people beyond

source of concerns and conﬂicts among some neighboring countries.

geographical and language barriers to a common goal of protectingThis transboundary environmental problem requires concerted

our seas from marine debris pollution. NGOs and organizations thatefforts of all the relevan stakeholders beyond sectoral and politicalhave interests and passion to make our seas clean and healthy areboundaries. In this regard, OSEAN (Our Sea of East Asia Network)

more than welcome to join us. For more information, you can contact

and JEAN (Japan Environmental Action Network), the marine debris

us at loveseakorea@empas.com. Please let us know if you have anyNGOs in Korea and Japan, have shared a vision in which people inproblem in receiving the newsletter. These articles are also available

the East Asia could act together as one community in protecting ouronline at http://cafe.naver.com/osean.

precious marine ecosystems. We believe that NGOs in the East Asian
countries have an important role in sharing experiences and acting
together to address the marine debris issue in the region from theSecretariat,

bottom up.

Sunwook Hong (OSEAN) and Kojima Azusa (JEAN)

The city governments of Shimonoseki and Nagato, and JEAN
co-organized ‘2009 Marine Litter Summit - Shimonoseki·Nagato
Meeting’ on October 16-18, 2009, in Shimonoseki, Japan. OSEAN
suggested in the meeting to start an ‘East Asian Civil Forum on

17_ Dec. 2012. Vol. 3(2)Recommended Citation for the whole volume:
Hong, Sunwook. (2012). Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litter, Our Sea of East Asia Network, Vol 3(2): 1-18,
Tongyeong, South Korea.

Contacts
Japan Environmental Action Network (JEAN)
202, Mansion SOPHIA,
3-4-12, Minami-Cho, Kokubunji-Shi, Tokyo, Japan
URL http://www.jean.jp E-mail Cleanup@jean.jp
TEL +81-42-322-0712 FAX +81-42-324-8252

Our Sea of East Asia Network (OSEAN)
722, Leadersvill,
1570-8, Jukrim, Gwangdo, Tongyeong, Gyeongnam, 650-826, South Korea
URL http://cafe.naver.com/osean E-mail oseannews@naver.com
TEL +82-70-8179-4478 FAX +82-303-0001-4478

Green Fins Association (GFA)
154/1 Phang Nag. Rd. Tombol, Thailand
URL http://www.greenfins-thailand.org E-mail footprint_arkitec@yahoo.com
TEL +66-81-691-7309 FAX +66-76-391-127

Taiwan Ocean Cleanup Alliance (TOCA)
97057, No.87, Fuyang Rd., Hualien City, Hualien County, Taiwan
URL http:// www.icctaiwan.org.tw E-mail kuroshio@seed.net.tw
TEL +886-3-857-8148 FAX +886-3-857-8948

Marine Litter News from East Asia Civil Forum on Marine Litteris published two times a year by civil groups in east asia countries.
EditorSunwook Hong,
President of OSEAN
Postal Address: 722, Leadersvill, 1570-8, Jukrim, Gwangdo, Tongyeong, Gyeongnam, 650-826, South Korea
E-mail loveseakorea@empas.com