Plastics provided us with many useful materials over the past 40 years, but they have also presented us with various problems. Plastic pollution in the marine environment is a serious matter, as it is estimated that about 1000 tons of plastic wastes are dumped into the ocean annually from vessels alone. Such plastic pollutants are threatening marine life. At the same time, plastics is also a potential substrate on which many marine organisms can settle and form fouling communities dispersing by plastic rafting. The purpose of my research is to quantify experimentally the establishment of macrofouling communities on three types of plastic bags at two sites, Port Shelter and Grass Island, Hong Kong. A total of 39 species of macrofoulers were found to have used plastic bags as their attach...[ Read more ]

Plastics provided us with many useful materials over the past 40 years, but they have also presented us with various problems. Plastic pollution in the marine environment is a serious matter, as it is estimated that about 1000 tons of plastic wastes are dumped into the ocean annually from vessels alone. Such plastic pollutants are threatening marine life. At the same time, plastics is also a potential substrate on which many marine organisms can settle and form fouling communities dispersing by plastic rafting. The purpose of my research is to quantify experimentally the establishment of macrofouling communities on three types of plastic bags at two sites, Port Shelter and Grass Island, Hong Kong. A total of 39 species of macrofoulers were found to have used plastic bags as their attachment substrate during June 1996 through May 1997. Except January 1997 and February 1997, the percentage coverage of macrofoulers at Grass Island was significantly higher than that at Port Shelter. The differences may be due to high nutrient inputs and rich nearby macrofouling communities at Grass Island. Another observation of my study is to examine colors of plastics on the settlement of macrofoulers, and it was found that higher saturation of greyness is more preferable for the settlement of Hydroides elegans, Spirorbis sp. and Sinupetraliella umbonatoides. Similarly, warm colors of different hues of plastic sheets attracted significantly more H. elegans and S. umbonatoides for settlement. The surfaces of higher saturation of greyness and warm color plastic represent the relatively "lower energy" surface, which are more preferable for larval settlement. However, prolonged immersion diminishes the difference of color effects.