64 | Reason Foundation
50
“Oceanic ’garbage patch’ not nearly as big as portrayed in media,” Oregon State University
News & Research Communications.
51
Miriam Goldstein, “Does the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ exist?” January 10, 2011,
available at http://seaplexscience.com/2011/01/10/does-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-
exist/, accessed September 20, 2013.
52
H.S. Carson et al., “The plastic-associated microorganisms of the North Pacific Gyre,”
Marine Pollution, Bulletin 2013, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.07.054
53
Ibid.
54
Miriam C. Goldstein, Marci Rosenberg and Lanna Cheng, “Increased oceanic microplastic
debris enhances oviposition in an endemic pelagic insect,” Biological Letters, 2012,
available at http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2012/04/26/rsbl.2012.0298,
accessed 5/21/2014.
55
Monterey Bay Aquarium, Laysan Albatross & Plastics: Trash Travels, Available at:
http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/conservation/research/laysan-albatross-and-
plastics#trash-travels accessed May 7, 2014.
56
The 100,000 figure is parroted by Emily Utter, advocacy and community partnerships
director for Chico Bags, a manufacturer of reusable bags and a very active advocate of
efforts to ban plastic bags, who asserts, “As we’ve heard, plastic bags pose a huge
environmental threat to our marine environment, 100,000 marine deaths per year due to
plastic bags.” (Emily Utter. Comments at the Meeting of the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors, January 22, 2008, p.43.) And again by the Sierra Club of Massachusetts:
“Hundreds of thousands of birds and marine animals are killed each year by plastic bags and
other plastic debris floating in the world’s oceans due to ingestion and entanglement.”
(Sierra Club of Massachusetts, Plastic Bags: which do you choose, paper or plastic?
Available at
http://www.sierraclubmass.org/issues/conservation/plasticbags/plasticbags.html, accessed
September 16, 2013.) Meanwhile, the National Audubon Society claims, “Every year the
floating ‘bladders’ of these bags kill hundreds of thousands of seabirds—along with sea
turtles and marine mammals—which mistake them for jellyfish and squid, and then starve to
death after filling their guts with plastic,” National Audubon Society, “Billions of Birds
Wing Their Way North: Audubon Tips on How To Help Migrating Birds.” Available at
http://www.audubon.org/newsroom/press-releases/2013/billions-birds-wing-their-way-
north, accessed May 7, 2014.
57
Nolan-ITU, “Plastic Shopping Bags—Analysis of Levies and Environmental Impacts,”
Final Report, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Government of Australia, 2004,
at p. 30. The original study can be found on this archived version:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041111133541/http://www.deh.gov.au/industry/waste/plastic-
bags/pubs/analysis-final.pdf, accessed May 7, 2014. A corrected version of that Australian
report uploaded to the Web in 2006 states: “A figure of 100,000 marine animals killed
annually has been widely quoted by environmental groups; this figure was from a study in
Newfoundland which estimated the number of animals entrapped by plastic debris in that
area from a four-year period from 1981–84” (emphasis added).
58
The reference (footnote 12 in the Nolan-ITU study) is: “Environment Canada,
www.ec.gc.ca/marine/debris/ENG/facts.htm”
59
Environment Canada, “Marine Debris in Canada: Facts and Figures,” December 2002.
Available at http://web.archive.org/web/20021218022816/
http://www.ec.gc.ca/marine/debris/ENG/Facts.htm, accessed September 16, 2013.