these actions indicate a growing international awareness of the need 

 to protect the health of the ocean. 



Much has been written and much has beeen said about the ocean 

 pollution problem in recent years. Oil pollution achieved worldwide 

 attention with the Toiirey Canyon accident in 1967. This provided 

 dramatic evidence of the ecological impact of a major marine disaster. 



This was further highlighted by the Santa Barbara oilspill. Since 

 then we have become aware of the more pervasive nature of oil 

 pollution. 



Thor Heyerdahl, in addressing this committee at its last conference, 

 described encountering widespread evidence of oil contamination in 

 crossing the Atlantic on his raft, the Ra. 



More recently, the results of our own NOAA MAKMAP fisheries 

 cruises attracted major public notice. These cruises were designed to 

 study distribution and abundance of the eggs and larvae of fishes. 



In the course of towing their plankton nets, however, our scientists 

 found oil and plastic materials in many of their samples over a very 

 large expanse of the Atlantic and Caribbean. A repeat survey 6 months 

 after the first found essentially the same widespread oil and plastic 

 pollution, and if I can diverge from my prepared statement. Mr. 

 Chairman, w^hat I would like to do is illustrate the widespread nature 

 of this pollution we have been finding and give you some examples 

 of it. 



On the chart, vou see the densitv of tar globules along the Atlantic 

 coast. As you can see, the distribution of tar glolniles is pretty general 

 throughout the eastern coast. 



On the next chart, we have a similar chart, similarly displayed, of 

 information dealing with the density of plastics, and again we find 

 that plastics have become so ubiquitous over the world's oceans and 

 are widely distributed wherever our research ships have carried out 

 their surveys. 



Senator Housings. I am reading 4.4, off South Carolina, and off 

 New York it is 71. 



Dr. White. That is right. Off New York, you have a lot more marine 

 traffic. It is 71 grams per kilometer of plastic material. 



Senator Hollixgs. What is the damage to marine life caused by 

 the plastics? 



Dr. White. We don't know. We know it is widespread. We don't 

 know the extent to which it gets into the marine ecosystem. We don't 

 know the extent to which it is swallowed by fish larvae and things 

 of that nature. This is one of the things we have to find out. 



I have here some samples that were actually taken, Mr. Chairman, 

 in these surveys. This first one, which I can hand out, was taken in 

 the vicinity of Bermuda. This one principally shows the kind of tar 

 that we are finding pretty widespread across the ocean. This one taken 

 off Cape May, N.J., shows the amount of plastic that would be picked 

 up in one of these plankton net tows. 



That will give you a real feel, I think, for the kinds of things that 

 are very, very widely spread across the ocean. 



Senator Hollings. Has there been any similar testing up on the 

 west coast or on the coast of Alaska ? 



Dr. White. Our principal work, so far, has been in the East, but we 

 do intend to carry out similar surveys on the west coast 



