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Introduction
Introduction
Plastic pollution is a major problem throughout the entire world, affecting every major body of water. Plastic harms the bodies of water by disrupting their ecosystems and contaminating everything that it touches. Its effect on the Great Lakes, specifically Lake Michigan, could be considered just as bad as how it effects the oceans. Traverse City, MI is full of fishermen, and plenty of people fish as a recreational activity. Unfortunately, the plastics heavily get in the way of properly fishing in Lake Michigan. Unfortunately, fishermen are a part of the plastic pollution problem through a process called ghost fishing. Ghost fishing is when fishermen either purposefully leave their equipment lying around and it makes its way into the water or when their equipment breaks mid-use in the water and being in the water for so long will start to make it break down into microplastics. Microplastics is when a larger plastic starts to break down releasing much smaller bits of plastic into the water, which is a direct consequence of plastic pollution. These microplastics are very harmful towards the fish in Lake Michigan because they will typically ingest them and that will cause harm inside of them since these plastics are often toxic.
Literature Review
Literature Review
Plastic Pollution is such a big problem because of how much it gets entangled with the environment. This is causing fish to eat a lot of microplastics instead of actual food, killing them. This is making it harder for Traverse City fishermen to actually catch fish in Lake Michigan, slowing down the process.
Every year tens of millions of pounds of plastic are being dumped into the Great Lakes and recently more microplastics can be found in water samples. (Apete, 2024)
Mostly fishing nets are getting lost and broken in the Great Lakes, but before they even start to break down, they can still harm any fish that it comes into contact with because they catch the fish. However, they have a much harder time escaping and cannot find food at that point. (Yeo, 2023)
Twenty-two million pounds of plastic end up in the Great Lakes, either intentional or accidentally, but over half of that is just in Lake Michigan alone. Whether the plastic ends up there accidentally or not it is still a huge problem that is affecting everything around it. Plastic is severely harming the beaches, the marine life, and even the people around the area.
Theoretical Framework
Theoretical Framework
The theoretical framework that I chose that I thought would best fit my research question is called the Theory of Social Amplification of Risk. I believed this to be the best option for my research question because of what this framework is about. This framework is "“The main thesis is that hazards interact with psychological, social, institutional, and cultural processes in ways that may amplify or attenuate public responses to the risk or risk event. (Kaperson, 2010)." I thought it was a good choice for my research question because of how it talks about how people deal with and perceive different hazards, and in this case the hazard is plastic pollution.
Research Question
Research Question
My research question is: How does plastic pollution in Lake Michigan affect Traverse City MI, how do the residents feel about it, and how does it affect the fishing industry in Traverse City?
This question is important to address because it is talking about the lives of people who rely on a heavily polluted body of water. Whether it be for food or water they still rely on it at times because it is a source of drinking water for them and gives them plenty of fish to eat. Unfortunately, with plastic pollution getting in the way of the marine life in Lake Michigan, it is getting harder to catch a fish in the lake that has not consumed any plastic.
References
References
(PDF) The Social Amplification of Risk, www.researchgate.net/publication/279397338_The_social_amplification_of_risk. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.
Apete, L., Martin, O. V., & Iacovidou, E. (2024, June 10). Fishing plastic waste: Knowns and known unknowns. Marine Pollution Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116530
Desk, Lake Core Editors. “The Alarming Issue of Plastic Pollution in Lake Michigan.” Lake.Travel, 21 Oct. 2024, lake.travel/lake-michigan-plastic-pollution/.
“Global Leader in Publishing, Education and Research.” Wiley, www.wiley.com/en-us. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.
“The Great Lakes.” National Wildlife Federation, www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Wild-Places/Great-Lakes. Accessed 23 Mar. 2025.
House, Kelly. “New Study: Great Lakes Beaches Are Littered with Plastic Trash.” Great Lakes Now, 1 May 2024, www.greatlakesnow.org/2024/05/new-study-great-lakes-beaches-are-littered-with-plastic-trash/#:~:text=By%20Bridge%20Michigan%201%20Plastic%20pollution%20is%20a,more%20regulations%20on%20single-use%20plastic%20production%20and%20use.
“How Does Plastic Pollution Affect Marine Life?” Fauna & Flora, 21 Feb. 2025, www.fauna-flora.org/explained/how-does-plastic-pollution-affect-marine-life/.
Kozioł, A., Paso, K. G., & Kuciel, S. (2022, August 26). Properties and recyclability of abandoned fishing net-based plastic debris. MDPI. https://doi.org/10.3390/catal12090948
Lai, O. (2022, March 29). Plastic and other environmental pollution in the Great Lakes. Earth.Org. https://earth.org/plastic-and-other-environmental-pollution-in-the-great-lakes/
Manager, E. K. O. & E., Kowalski, E., & Manager, O. & E. (2024, April 29). New report highlights the plastic pollution problem in the Great Lakes. Environment Illinois. https://environmentamerica.org/illinois/articles/new-report-highlights-the-plastic-pollution-problem-in-the-great-lakes/
Mason, S. A., Kammin, L., Eriksen, M., Aleid, G., Wilson, S., Box, C., Williamson, N., & Riley, A. (2016, June 18). Pelagic plastic pollution within the surface waters of Lake Michigan, USA. Journal of Great Lakes Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2016.05.009
Yeo, Sophie. “Hunting for Ghost Nets in the Great Lakes.” Pacific Standard, 23 Aug. 2018, psmag.com/environment/hunting-for-ghost-nets-in-the-great-lakes/.
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