Fresh winds on the Baltic Sea.
I have just come back from another encounter with the Baltic Sea. Sailing is something entirely new for me, but when my friends told me they had rented a sailing-boat for a week I decided to join them for a couple of days. Although being slightly frightened by the millions of ropes, an always threatening boom and the boat sometimes seeming to turn over in the waves, I must admit that sailing definitely has its advantages. It’s incredible to glide over the water, almost in total silence and without using any other fuel than the wind.
Unfortunately, and as I have written here before, the Baltic Sea isn’t in best shape. Now scientists have found lots of tiny particles, invisible to the naked eye, floating in the seas around Sweden. Many of them seem to come from the wearing of roads and car tyres, but also from textiles. Other particles could have their origin in boat paint and plastic.
The plastic fibres and particles can not only be harmful for the inhabitants of the sea, but might also contain toxic substances injurious to the environment that end up in fish, and in the long run also affect humans.
One of the marine biologists who have made the study, Fredrik Norén, says to the Swedish radio that more plastic materials must be degradable, so that they don’t leave particles in the nature after being used.
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