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Aug 28, 2009 01:01 PM | 20
It isn't the most picturesque of locations, but a number of scientists spent their summer taking in the 25.9-million-square-kilometer oval of the Pacific Ocean known as the North Subtropical Gyre, or "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch," located about 1,600 kilometers off California's coast.
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition's (SEAPLEX) research vessel (R/V) New Horizon returned to California earlier this week after spending about three weeks studying pools of plastic debris that have collected in the gyre, in particular their impact on marine life.
Scripps researchers engaged in 24-hour sampling periods using a variety of tow nets to collect debris at several ocean depths. On August 11, the researchers encountered a large net entwined with plastic and various marine organisms; they also recovered several plastic bottles covered with ocean animals, including large barnacles.
"We targeted the highest plastic-containing areas so we could begin to understand the scope of the problem," Miriam Goldstein of SIO, chief scientist of the expedition, said in a statement. "We also studied everything from phytoplankton to zooplankton to small midwater fish."
Earlier this month, a team of researchers from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, Calif., returned from its own two-month voyage to the garbage patch, aboard the 15-meter Ocean Research Vessel, Alguita. Scuba instructor and underwater videographer Drew Wheeler traveled on board Alguita and blogged about his experiences for Scientific American.com.
Wheeler's conclusion: "We must stop this from getting worse by reducing or eliminating the use of non biodegradable plastic for disposable products and product packaging. If the increasing rate of plastic in the ocean does not change, then I do not see how we can avoid catastrophic changes in the health of our marine ecosystem and, as a result, to human life itself."
Image © Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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20 Comments
Add Comment"Great"? It looks like it's about 60' x 40' They should have just picked it up and sailed on back home patting themselves on the back.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI suggest you read more on the subject. The particular picture is an example of the accumulated debris, one of the millions. Most people are confused about this patch in the ocean. Is it an island that we can walk on? Can the edge of the area even be recognized by an unsuspecting human?.. Answer is that no, it's not YET an island to walk on -- but getting there. Where the area ends and begins may not be immediately recognized by a random person, but accumulation continues and density is increasing. It's these studies that will help put some hard numbers at the problem and help raise the public awareness on the use of plastic.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOk...just a thought here...instead of every lame ass scientist "commenting" on the garbage patch.....how about...."PICKING IT UP!!!!!"....WTF!!!!....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSorry to belabor the subject....but this really pisses me off....are we really saying that a bunch of people are riding around on their boats just admiring this pile of crap and not actually DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT!!!....this is the most insane thing I think I have ever read....and I have read a LOT of serious crap on the internet....PEOPLE PLEASE GET A CLUE AND DO SOMETHING!!!...a few boats could pick all this shit up and at least reduce the amount of stuff instead of just saying..."Wow, this is really bad....we really should do something about this...perhaps if my university gave me about 2 million dollars of grant money, I could figure out a way to get rid of this stuff...??...hmmm....here's a brilliant idea....GET A BIG ASS TRASH BARGE....HAVE SOME CONVICTS GO OUT THERE AND PICK THE S#*T UP...THEN RECYCLE IT!!!....WOW...THAT ONLY TOOK TWO MINUTES TO SOLVE!!!....I AM REALLY SICK OF OUR INABILITY TO SOLVE FAIRLY SIMPLE PROBLEMS.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy Thoughts: How can we mandate ALL PLASTICS are recycled across? I believe it is a better solution than reverting to paper biodegradable. From my perspective, this would create more jobs as well. In the intermin, send out encarerated individuals with guards to clean up the Pacific debris.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGSW
Err... anybody who read the article will notice that it is 25.9 MILLION SQUARE KILOMETERS (for you non-metrics over on the other side of the big pond, that is approximately 10 million square miles) or a patch of more than 5000 by 5000 kilometers. If you think a couple of ships with a few scientists can even make a dent in that... well... disney world is that way --->
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisErr... anybody who read the article will notice that it is 25.9 MILLION SQUARE KILOMETERS (for you non-metrics over on the other side of the big pond, that is approximately 10 million square miles) or a patch of more than 5000 by 5000 kilometers. If you think a couple of ships with a few scientists can even make a dent in that... well... disney world is that way --->
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust an idea here. Back when I was a youngster we had two kinds of bottles glass and, well glass. We also had aluminum cans. Everyone recycled the glass bottles back then. They were worth 10 cents each afterall. Taking care of them when we went to the grocery store was one of my chores and part of my allowence. What happened to the glass bottle? The beer companies still use them. But, come to think of it, they don't even have returns on them anymore either (at least where I live). If we started to use glass again, along with aluminum we could move away from plastics all together. Since both products have a small economic incentive attached more consumers would recycle them. Plus, with the oil shortage, why are we still producing plastic bottles which are a petroleum based product? Also, it has been suggested by several scientists that the plastic may be leaching into the products stored in them causing a myriad of health problems for us. Seems to me that the plastic container is causing more problems than it's worth? Except, perhaps, to the big oil companies who are reaping the profits from this "dangerous" product?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBesides, wait until you experience your favorite beverage from an ice cold glass bottle. Oh man!
It really doesn't matter how big of a volume this garbage patch is or how easy to it is to send a barge of inmates to haul these pile of trash for recycling. What does is getting to the bottom of the problem and having people to commit not to dump their crap into the Pacific Ocean. Otherwise, it will just be another vicious circle and waste of effort ...not to mention money on clean-up operations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt really does not matter how huge of a volume this garbage is or how easy it is to send a barge of inmates to clean up this pile of trash for recycling. What does is getting to the root of the problem and having these people commit not to dump their crap into the Pacific Ocean. Otherwise, it will be just be a vicious circle and waste of effort ... not to mention money on garbage recovery operations.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSo much anger in every comment im reading people dont make good decisions when angry , the True answer is what it has and always will be knowledge until we all agree its more important that we stop the Damage were causing to the oceans and wildlife (which we eat by the way) and less important we use sooo much damn plastic.....Im willing to cut back are you?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs I understand it, the "patch" is twice the size of Texas, and 300 feet deep in some places. It would be impossible to clean up. You can't incinerate it either. All caused from millions of people too lazy to throw their trash away in a responsible manner. It comes from all over the world, and, I believe, every ocean on the planet has a "gyre". It's just a matter of time before Mother Earth kicks us off this rock, and starts over.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswant to know how it is getting there, well we have ships that transport products all over the world and while they are at sea they dump their trash and waste when they are not supposed to into the ocean. also we have people who visit beaches and such and go out on personal boats and just cast stuff off the sides like the ocean is their big dumpster, that is how the trash got there, DUH!! we need to stop using the oceans and lakes and rivers as a trash heap! this is our water resources people, once it is depleted, well guess what, so are we! we need to stop worrying about the wrong things and step up and start living how we should. dont you remember how you were taught in girl scouts and boy scouts. treat the wilderness with care. dont take things from the wilderness without giving good things back, chop down a tree, plant 2 more in its place, simple things that can save our planet. eventually it will be too late and most of the worlds population will end up dead in the worlds dumpster, to those who know how to live off the land without ruining it, i will see you then when everyone is wondering what the hell happened!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisum you did see it does say the area is twice the size of texas and that there is more than one of these. clearly there is a huge problem here and we need to fix it. not just pick it up, we need to figure out who all is dumping it and make regulations for there to be penalties to keep them from dumping anymore into the oceans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWow....I am fascinated by people's stupidity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCheck out the documentary about this on VBS.TV. Go to the Toxic channel and see first hand what is floating in our oceans.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismost of it is fine particles as well, creating a plastic soup if you will....the stuff floats and the Sun can blast it with UV, but as it degrades it probably sinks just enough to get out of UV range and then lasts a LONG time. We better start eating even fast food on regular plates with real forks...sell them in the drive-thru and give refund when returned. People wouldn't toss it out the window then....nasty litterbugs should be wearing stripes picking up trash on the road.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhat marine and bird life is thriving on this debris? For every animal that gets caught and dies, there are others that feast on it. And yes I know there are many chemical breakdowns that might adversely affect sea life. And true they are unsightly if one happens upon it, but like artificial reefs, what benefits are there with these floating islets?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf you eliminate plastic, you raise the cost of product packaging, and the overall cost of products. Biodegradable or photodegradable plastics often are only partially so, still breaking up into pieces of plastic. Plastics should not be demonized because they often actually reduce overall resource and chemical consumption. Paper bags costs 3 times the energy use of plastic.
Garbage Island is a lagging indicator of our disposable society. People no longer value the environment, their jobs, their families. They have lost the cultural aspect of "values." I live at the edge of the world, on the Pacific in So Cal. On a daily adventure to the beach, I was picking up dozens of plastic bottles and cans, discarded carelessly by runners and beach-goers. I recycle them. A security guard stopped me and asked me what I was doing. I told him "recycling," He said, "What's that?" Dead serious. Here. In the great Republic of California, the home of granola munching hippies and every "we care" cause ever invented in our society. But people just don't give a shit. Everything can be thrown out. Until we as humans get a grip on our wanton disregard for everything, we will continue to be parasitic to our world. It will be our Armageddon, no asteroids required.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe stated objective of the researches was to ascertain the impact of plastic debris on marine life within the North Subtropical Gyre of the Pacific ocean. The researchers clearly believe there is a problem that could lead to, "catastrophic changes in the health of our marine ecosystem and, as a result, to human life itself." However, the article never specifically states what detrimental effects were found on marine life. The article further states that, "they also recovered several plastic bottles covered with ocean animals, including large barnacles." Is that bad? Or is it like the abundant marine life that springs up around sunken ships? Where is the cause and effect?
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