| | Week 8 of #FridayOceanFindings delves into 2 very different but related human activities which are both showing increasing trends in the North-East Atlantic and bring both opportunities and threats - tourism and the production and consumption of plastics.
Our first report today highlights the pressures caused by tourism. A wide range of recreation and tourism activities take place along the North-East Atlantic, all exerting different pressures on the coastal and marine environment. Recreational boating, recreational fishing, marine wildlife watching, beach recreation and tourism, and cruise tourism all contribute to physical disturbance, physical damage, and physical loss to varying degrees. Furthermore, some contribute to pollution through contamination by hazardous substances, marine litter, underwater noise, nutrient and organic matter enrichment.
Secondly we look at the production and consumption of plastics. It's durability and flexibility mean that plastic consumption and waste issues will intensify in the future, and that global annual plastics production is expected to reach up to 1,2 billion tonnes by 2050. Cheap prices for plastic mean that reuse and recycling of end-of-life plastics remain low, and future actions need to emphasise waste prevention as well as resource-efficient and long-term circular use of plastic products.
These feeder reports are components of OSPAR’s Quality Status Report (QSR) 2023. The QSR will examine the current state of the marine environment and ecosystems, and the human activities benefiting from the marine environment and interacting with it.
We hope you enjoy these reports. Please do contact us with any comments at [email protected] | | |  | | Production and consumption of plastics | | 
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