There are 37.7 million plastic waste on the coastline of World Heritage · Henderson Island

ByU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters

South Pacific · Pitcairn IslandsHenderson IslandIs an uninhabited island like "Isle of Oshima Island", it is preserved in nature and it is registered as a UNESCO World Heritage (natural heritage), but now its beauty drifted plastic waste I am in a situation that is obscured by. The above picture is from the Hawaiian Islands / Laythan Island and you can see that similar problems are occurring on many coastlines.

Exceptional and rapid accumulation of anthropogenic debris on one of the world's most remote and pristine islands
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/05/09/1619818114


Remote South Pacific island has highest levels of plastic rubbish in the world - Science News - ABC News
http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-05-16/plastic-pollution-on-henderson-island-in-south-pacific/8527370


The location of Henderson Island is here when looking at Google Maps. Although saying "here", it is difficult to understand where the place is unless zooming out considerably, but it is mostly located "around the middle of a line connecting New Zealand and Peru".


Henderson Island is one of the islands that make up the Pitcairn Islands, the distance to Pitcairn Island is 193 km, which is more than 5000 km away from the nearest continent.

Although it is now an uninhabited island, according to the survey, there are times when there were Polynesian settlements from the 12th century to the 15th century. The island was "discovered" by the Portuguese seafarer Pedro Fernandez de Kerios in 1606 and named it "San Juan Bautista". This name means "St. John the Baptist", Masamune Date sent outKeio Univ. European envoyThe name of the ship used was also given the same name.

At this time no one lived on San Juan Bautista Island, and in 1819 the ship of the British East India Company rediscovered the island. It was named "Henderson Island" because the captain's name was Henderson.

In November 1820, a ship named Essex who was fishing whale in this near waters was sunk by a sperm whale, the surviving crew boarded in three boats and got drifted to Henderson Island on December 20 . They left the boat for South America except December 27, one week later, except three people. Three people who chose to remain on the island were rescued on April 9 the following year. This was left by the surviving Thomas · Chapel, and later led to the idea of ​​Herman Melville's novel "Whitewear".

Even after this, it is not an island that has a lot of history in history, but in the 1980's, an American businessman Arthur Lattriev plans to build a villa and airport. The Pitcairn Island Council also approved the plan, but as a result of lobbying by environmental protection groups, the UK 's Foreign Affairs / UK Federal Ministry decided to cancel development. In this way, the unspoiled natural environment was left, and it was registered as a World Heritage (natural heritage) in 1988.

Looking back on the history, it seems that it is not an island that is soiled by human hands, but according to joint research by the University of Tasmania and the Royal Bird Protection Association, the impact of plastic waste, which continues to increase over the past several decades, It also extends to the island and there are 37.7 million pieces on the coast, 17.6 tons of garbage in total. The amount of garbage per square meter is 671.6, and about 68% of the garbage is accumulating over the coast over 10 cm, and the density seems to be the highest class in the world.

It is still a situation that 1.7 to 26.8 garbage will flow to the island per day on the coastline 1 m a day.