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Pacific Ocean garbage patch worries researchers

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 28, 2009 at 8:11 am

From the Associated Press:

“A tawny stuffed puppy bobs in cold sea water, his four stiff legs tangled in the green net of some nameless fisherman.

It’s one of the bigger pieces of trash in a giant patch of garbage-littered water — one that’s bigger than Texas — where most of the plastic looks like snowy confetti against the deep blue of the north Pacific Ocean.

But most of the trash in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has broken into bite-sized plastic bits, and scientists want to know whether it’s sickening or killing the small fish, plankton and birds that ingest it.

During their August fact-finding expedition, a group of University of California scientists found much more debris than they expected. The team announced their observations at a San Diego press conference Thursday.

“It’s pretty shocking — it’s unusual to find exactly what you’re looking for,” said Miriam Goldstein, who led fellow researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego on the three-week voyage. …”

Read more from the Associated Press by clicking here.

August 28, 2009 · Filed Under Pacific Ocean Garbage Dump

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