Post by momena on Mar 12, 2024 19:32:56 GMT -8
Alex Weber, an 18-year-old girl, has just published a study that analyzes how golf balls enter and degrade in water.
Alex Weber's favorite thing is diving off the coast of Carmel, California. She has been doing it since she was a child, accompanied by her father, exploring underwater France Mobile Number List coves, crevices and giant kelp forests. She is able to hold her breath for 2 minutes at a time and her father up to five. But her perspective changed abruptly in the summer of 2016 when, at age 16, she and her father were diving in the waters near the Pebble Beach golf course. There, she noticed that the ocean floor was carpeted with golf balls in various stages of decomposition.
He collected 2,000 golf balls on the first day and has since collected more than 50,000 in total, 2.5 tons of marine debris stored in his parents' garage.
Thus began his determined quest to clean the golf balls and investigate the problem further. He collected 2,000 golf balls on the first day and has since collected more than 50,000 in total, 2.5 tons of marine debris stored in his parents' garage. However, she is doing more than cleaning; She has also been collecting data.
Early on, Weber approached Matthew Savoca, a Stanford University scientist who studies ocean plastic debris. As Weber explains on his website , he wanted to ask her about the "strong and mysterious odor" that golf balls emitted and was wondering if it could be dimethyl sulfide, a plastic chemical that acts as a food activator for the animals. Savoca's curiosity was piqued and he encouraged Weber to write a scientific paper about his discovery.
He joined her on collection dives and describes collecting so many bags of balls that the kayaks they had brought were overloaded and had to be towed back to shore. She told NPR:
"When we were there, we heard a strange sound, and we looked up the hill and there were golf balls flying off the course into the ocean where we were collecting the balls." They collected between 500 and 5,000 balls per day.
Weber's paper (co-authored with Savoca and his father Michael Weber) was just published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, titled "Quantifying Marine Debris Associated with Coastal Golf Courses." NPR reported:
«The team observes that the golf balls are coated with a thin layer of polyurethane that degrades over time. They also contain zinc compounds which are toxic… Waves and currents act like a rock grinder and break up golf balls. Although golf balls will only have a small effect on the ocean, Savoca says they break down into microplastic pieces that marine animals could eat. The team also notes that there are many coastal golf courses around the world, so this may go beyond California.
They removed 39,602 golf balls from intertidal and nearshore environments near Carmel, California.
Results include:
They removed 39,602 golf balls from intertidal and nearshore environments near Carmel, California.
Combined with simultaneous cleanup efforts, they reported recovering 50,681 balls, approximately 2.5 tons of debris.
They also estimated that almost 28kg of synthetic material had eroded away from the balls they recovered.
They propose continued removal of this debris in other locations with coastal golf courses around the world.
These numbers are staggering:
If a player at Pebble Beach misses 1 to 3 balls per round and the golf course hosts 62,000 rounds of golf each year, then between 62,000 and 186,000 balls enter the ocean each year. Multiply that by the 34,011 eighteen-hole golf courses found near oceans and rivers, and it's a real problem.
The study's authors hope their work will help create better cleaning protocols for coastal regions with golf courses, as well as stricter regulations for retrieving golf balls. Weber told TreeHugger that some golf courses have begun beach cleanups and are working to help them expand into underwater collections. Maybe someone should start inventing an all-natural, water-soluble golf ball? Or a floating golf ball? Then golfers would have to see what they are doing and it would no longer be acceptable.
Alex Weber's favorite thing is diving off the coast of Carmel, California. She has been doing it since she was a child, accompanied by her father, exploring underwater France Mobile Number List coves, crevices and giant kelp forests. She is able to hold her breath for 2 minutes at a time and her father up to five. But her perspective changed abruptly in the summer of 2016 when, at age 16, she and her father were diving in the waters near the Pebble Beach golf course. There, she noticed that the ocean floor was carpeted with golf balls in various stages of decomposition.
He collected 2,000 golf balls on the first day and has since collected more than 50,000 in total, 2.5 tons of marine debris stored in his parents' garage.
Thus began his determined quest to clean the golf balls and investigate the problem further. He collected 2,000 golf balls on the first day and has since collected more than 50,000 in total, 2.5 tons of marine debris stored in his parents' garage. However, she is doing more than cleaning; She has also been collecting data.
Early on, Weber approached Matthew Savoca, a Stanford University scientist who studies ocean plastic debris. As Weber explains on his website , he wanted to ask her about the "strong and mysterious odor" that golf balls emitted and was wondering if it could be dimethyl sulfide, a plastic chemical that acts as a food activator for the animals. Savoca's curiosity was piqued and he encouraged Weber to write a scientific paper about his discovery.
He joined her on collection dives and describes collecting so many bags of balls that the kayaks they had brought were overloaded and had to be towed back to shore. She told NPR:
"When we were there, we heard a strange sound, and we looked up the hill and there were golf balls flying off the course into the ocean where we were collecting the balls." They collected between 500 and 5,000 balls per day.
Weber's paper (co-authored with Savoca and his father Michael Weber) was just published in Marine Pollution Bulletin, titled "Quantifying Marine Debris Associated with Coastal Golf Courses." NPR reported:
«The team observes that the golf balls are coated with a thin layer of polyurethane that degrades over time. They also contain zinc compounds which are toxic… Waves and currents act like a rock grinder and break up golf balls. Although golf balls will only have a small effect on the ocean, Savoca says they break down into microplastic pieces that marine animals could eat. The team also notes that there are many coastal golf courses around the world, so this may go beyond California.
They removed 39,602 golf balls from intertidal and nearshore environments near Carmel, California.
Results include:
They removed 39,602 golf balls from intertidal and nearshore environments near Carmel, California.
Combined with simultaneous cleanup efforts, they reported recovering 50,681 balls, approximately 2.5 tons of debris.
They also estimated that almost 28kg of synthetic material had eroded away from the balls they recovered.
They propose continued removal of this debris in other locations with coastal golf courses around the world.
These numbers are staggering:
If a player at Pebble Beach misses 1 to 3 balls per round and the golf course hosts 62,000 rounds of golf each year, then between 62,000 and 186,000 balls enter the ocean each year. Multiply that by the 34,011 eighteen-hole golf courses found near oceans and rivers, and it's a real problem.
The study's authors hope their work will help create better cleaning protocols for coastal regions with golf courses, as well as stricter regulations for retrieving golf balls. Weber told TreeHugger that some golf courses have begun beach cleanups and are working to help them expand into underwater collections. Maybe someone should start inventing an all-natural, water-soluble golf ball? Or a floating golf ball? Then golfers would have to see what they are doing and it would no longer be acceptable.