Ocean garbage patches not growing, so where is all that plastic going?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2010 at 8:36 amFrom Scientific American:
“Researchers have been visiting locations in the western North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea for more than two decades to better understand the large patches of plastic that have formed there. Although the mysteries surrounding exactly how the plastic gets to these locations, where it comes from and what impact it’s having on marine life remain unanswered, a team of scientists has now published perhaps the most analytical study of the patches to date based on data collected by research vessels over a 22-year period, between 1986 and 2008.
The researchers from Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Hawaii (UH) found, among other things, that the amount of plastic picked up by the researchers’ nets remained pretty stable over the years, despite society’s increased production and consumption of plastic, according to research published in Thursday’s issue of Science Express. … “
Continue reading from the Scientific American by clicking here.
Bottle boat Plastiki completes epic Pacific crossing
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 26, 2010 at 8:10 am
From National Geographic News Watch blog:
“Four months and 8,000 nautical miles after setting sail from Sausalito, California, the highly unconventional craft Plastiki completed its Pacific crossing to arrive in Sydney harbor this morning. The catamaran–constructed from 12,500 recycled plastic bottles–and its unlikely journey underscored the costs and consequences of plastic waste, much of which winds up in the ocean.
Environmentalist, Adventure Ecology founder, and expedition leader David de Rothschild, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, conceived the voyage as a means to inspire others to rethink the resources they consume, particularly the single-use plastics that have become a nearly ubiquitous part of modern life. … “
Continue reading from the National Geographic News Watch by clicking here.
Coastkeeper forum focuses on trash in ocean
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 6, 2010 at 8:06 amFrom the Del Mar Times:
“More than 100 people came together at the Encinitas Library Community Room on June 2 for San Diego Coastkeeper’s Signs of the Tide, to talk about and learn about trash in the ocean.
In the face of Assembly Bill 1998, which would potentially ban free single-use plastic bags statewide, participants learned from researchers, government officials and environmentalists how trash gets into the ocean, the degree of the problem, and possible solutions.
“Signs of the Tide is a quarterly community event designed to educate, engage and empower participants in issues relating to the health of San Diego’s coastal waters,” said Coastkeeper Executive Director Bruce Reznik. “The majority of trash found in our ocean is made of plastic, which does not biodegrade and may take hundreds of years to sink or break up. Reducing marine debris is an important part of our mission to protect San Diego’s water and the health of the wildlife and people that depend on it.” … “
Continue reading from the Del Mar Times by clicking here.
Sunday’s top of the scroll: Inventors take aim at Pacific Ocean ‘garbage patch’: Group hopes to capture tons of ocean debris
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 23, 2010 at 8:07 am
From the North County Times:
“Three longtime fishing buddies will head to the North Pacific this summer hoping to return with an uncommon haul: a barge full of trash from one of the ocean’s most polluted spots.
San Diego inventor Rich Hebert and his partners, retired metal shop teacher Roger Taylor of San Marcos and Pacific Tugboat Services owner Ted Griffith of Encinitas, will travel 1,000 miles across the ocean to the North Pacific gyre —- a Texas-sized vortex between California and Hawaii where plastics from the world’s continents have converged in a kind of “trash soup.”
Scientists have said that in parts of the gyre, degraded plastic particles outnumber plankton, and abandoned fishing nets drift, accumulating flotsam.
Once they reach the gyre on Griffith’s tugboat, the three partners, in cooperation with the San Francisco-based environmental organization Project Kaisei, will experiment with ways to remove debris from the ocean, creating, in effect, a marine waste management system. … “
Continue reading from the North County Times by clicking here.
Event: 1st Annual Fundraiser “My Ocean Planet” to benefit efforts to clean-up of the North Pacific Gyre
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 23, 2010 at 8:02 amFrom the Fusion Storm Foundation:
“On June 5, 2010, prominent guests, celebrities, and earth conscious citizens will support the ocean’s health by converging on Malibu for FusionStorm Foundation’s 1st annual fundraiser “My Ocean Planet”, benefitting Ocean Voyages Institute/Project Kaisei and its charge to clean up the North Pacific Gyre, also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The event, partnered with Kitson Malibu, will be hosted in the upscale Malibu Lumber Yard, a beautiful, sustainably designed complex surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Malibu hills. Guests will enjoy live musical performances, interactive entertainment, premium open bar, VIP lounge, celebrity red carpet, live auction, and a high-end raffle featuring dream yacht vacations to two exotic island destinations.
Project Kaisei’s mission is to research the state of marine debris in the ocean, undertake efficient and environmentally friendly solutions to clean up the Gyre, and to implement programs to prevent plastics from entering the marine ecosystem.
In August 2009, research ships found alarming amounts of plastics in all of their analysis samples on the Gyre. Project Kaisei will set sail on their second expedition in the summer of 2010 to further analyze the extent of the plastic pollution and to begin their clean-up solution: they will collect the plastic trash and recycle it into useable goods.
The North Pacific Gyre, the poster child for man-made pollution, is the world’s largest ecosystem and the world’s largest trash dump. Plastics, sludge, and non-biodegradable debris continue to accumulate at this point so that now researchers estimate the pollution to cover thousands of square miles. Plastic is forever; it never goes away. Instead, it breaks down into small pieces which threaten our ecosystem and possibly enter our food web when animals accidentally ingest it – with some ultimately dying from the exposure.
Established in November 2009 by FusionStorm’s CEO John Varel, FusionStorm Foundation focuses its efforts on causes that affect the planet and impact our daily lives. FusionStorm Foundation is committed to raising awareness for the clean ocean initiative and to raise funds to support Project Kaisei’s second expedition. “
To purchase tickets or for more information, visit: www.fusionstormfoundation.org
A passion to clean up the Pacific Ocean’s great ‘garbage patch’
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 11, 2010 at 8:19 am
From the Christian Science Monitor:
“Mary Crowley would rather be at sea. But she’s not. Instead, she is in a small conference room at a roadside Marriott in this landlocked town north of Sacramento. Around her are mainly men, many with beards, and many with baseball caps pulled down low and arms crossed tight. They are listening. Many of them would also rather be at sea.
Can these wishes be joined? We shall see in the next month or so.
Ms. Crowley has long hair, a ruddy outdoor complexion, and a sincere manner. She wants to sail west in the next month or two, out to what is called the North Pacific Trash Gyre. Her goal is to start cleaning up the plastic trash that has leaped into social consciousness over the past couple of years.
And she is urging some of the independent fishermen meeting here for the annual gathering of the Western Fishboat Owners Association to join her, using their boats to haul back garbage.
Whether they do or not, and it seems possible some will, Crowley leaves little doubt she will set sail this spring, regardless. That determination is bringing her cleanup effort, called Project Kaisei, attention and resources to combat what strikes many as an overwhelming problem. … “
Continue reading this article from the Christian Science Monitor by clicking here.
North Pacific Gyre: The ocean’s hidden garbage dump
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 6, 2010 at 7:28 am
From Environmental Graffiti:
“The Pacific Ocean – it’s absolutely breathtaking! Anyone who has ever been on the western coast will agree with me on that. This ocean is home to millions of organisms, but would you ever guess that it is home to an estimated 100m tons of plastic? That’s right, plastic. Roughly 500 miles off the coast of glamorous California is a giant garbage patch, with an area that is nearly twice the size of the continental U.S. This patch, often called the “pacific trash vortex”, is made up of a combination of plastics, chemical sludge and other debris consisting of everything from beach balls to kayaks and duffle bags.
This garbage patch was first discovered in 1988 by the National Oceans and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA). It is thought that the dump formed gradually as a result of pollution gathered from oceanic currents. The patch is essentially held together by the rotating currents in the North Pacific Gyre, which draws in waste from the coasts of both North America and Japan. This means that the junk from two of the most industrialised areas in the world has come together to form a plastic soup in the middle of our ocean. … “
Continue reading this article from Environmental Graffiti by clicking here.
Commentary: How to poison 65 million square miles of ocean
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 4, 2010 at 6:35 amFrom Roz Savage at The Huffington Post, this commentary:
“The Pacific Ocean is very, very big. Huge. Enormous. Especially when you are crossing it in a 23-foot rowboat at an average speed of 2 miles per hour.
Our usual way of looking at the world does a great disservice to the Pacific. We cut it half, and fling those two halves to the left and right extremities of the map. But go into Google Earth and turn the globe around until you are looking at the Pacific. You’ll see a little wafer of North America in the top right corner, and a sliver of Australia in the bottom left, and 25,000 tiny islands scattered as if by a giant’s hand. Apart from that it is blue, all blue. A whole lot of nothing.
Except that it isn’t. This neglected back-side of the earth is a 65 million square mile life-support system, without which life on this planet would not be possible. Covering nearly one-third of the Earth’s surface, the Pacific is larger than the total land area of the world. Over 60% of the world’s fish catch comes from the Pacific. I tried to find out how many individual fish might be in the ocean, but precise data is lacking. The top ranked reply to my Googled question was “a crap load”, which is probably as good an answer as any. … “
Continue reading this commentary by clicking here.
60ft Plastiki sets sail from San Francisco
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 22, 2010 at 5:29 amFrom Sail-World:
“The voyage of the Plastiki began in earnest yesterday as the 60’ man made plastic catamaran was towed unceremoniously out to sea of the San Francisco coast and released in calm condition and a gentle swell. The mission, the brain child of David de Rothschild , heir of the de Rothschild European banking dynasty began in 2006 and has seen its share of delays and setbacks, and a lack of cooperating wind is just a minor inconveniences.
The mission is model after the 1947 voyage of the Kon-tiki, lead by Thor Heyerdahl, who set sail on a manmade raft from Peru and landed in Tuamotu some 101 days later, proving to a skeptical scientific community that the populations of Polynesia could in fact, have originated from places other than Asia as previously thought. Plastiki’s message may not be as clear the 12,500 2 liter plastic beverage bottles used to provide flotation, however, anyone spending any time with the 6’4′
De Rothschild would find it hard to argue with his charismatic pitch for the environment: ‘We’re not being anti plastic’ David states ‘We need to prove additional uses for our plastics, we’re not being anti plastic, what we have to do is eliminate dumb uses of plastic. Thirty-eight billion plastic bottles went into landfill last year.’
David de Rothschild’s vision of recreating the way we think about our environment and how we build and or use, or more importantly re-use things is bound to hit home with sailors and non-sailors alike. … “
Continue reading this article from Sail-World by clicking here.
Inside the plastic vortex
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 21, 2010 at 6:05 amFrom YubaNet.com:
“Last summer, minutes before leaving port on a voyage to the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, Chief Scientist Miriam Goldstein was frank about what might and might not be encountered during the expedition to a place that has become known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” Goldstein made it clear to fellow scientists, cruise volunteers, and a few members of the news media that SEAPLEX would be an exploratory voyage.
The expedition was designed to locate and study plastic and other marine debris in the gyre. But finding the stuff wasn’t guaranteed. In some ways, the voyage would pay tribute to the grand oceanographic exploration days of yesteryear when seagoing scientists plunged into the great unknown of the ocean frontier. SEAPLEX (Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition) was designed to learn something about the extent of the debris problem. It’s quite possible, Goldstein said, that the graduate student researchers leading the trip-despite diligent preparations and knowledge gained from previous trips headed by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation-might not find any plastic in the gyre.
But less than a week into the voyage such provisos evaporated into wisps of sea air. The plastic indeed was there in the gyre, and there was lots and lots of it. … “
Continue reading this article from YubaNet.com by clicking here.
Plastiki, the plastic bottle boat, to set sail
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 20, 2010 at 5:22 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:
“The Plastiki, a boat with a hull built of 12,500 plastic bottles, was set to sail from a Sausalito yacht harbor this morning on a risky and adventurous voyage across the Pacific.
The purpose, said expedition leader David de Rothschild, is to draw attention to the health of the oceans and to demonstrate the value of recycled plastic bottles. De Rothschild and his crew of five hope to sail to Australia, a voyage of about 11,000 nautical miles. … “
Continue reading this article from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
Environmentalist: It’s becoming a plastic world
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 10, 2010 at 5:59 amFrom CNN:
“Every bit of fully synthetic plastic that’s ever been produced over the past 100 years is somewhere on our planet, a leading environmentalist, David de Rothschild, said Tuesday.
De Rothschild, who’s about to set sail on a boat made of recycled plastic to highlight pollution in the Pacific Ocean, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour there has been a huge aggregation of small molecular-sized pieces of plastic in our atmosphere, in our oceans, or on our land since plastic was first produced in 1909. “We’re seeing them aggregating … and getting into the food chain, which is then transferring toxins back into us through the food we eat,” de Rothschild said.
“We have this sort of voracious appetite for throwaway, single-use plastics, what I call Dumb Planet 1.0 plastics — the plastic bag, the Styrofoam cup.” … “
Continue reading this article from CNN by clicking here.
Chesbro bill seeks to fight spread of ocean garbage
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 3, 2010 at 6:44 amFrom the Eureka Times-Standard:
“California 1st District Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro has introduced a bill seeking to require the fast food industry to reduce and recycle packaging waste.
The bill, Assembly Bill 2138, would create the “Plastic Ocean Pollution Reduction, Recycling and Composting Act,” which would require the fast food industry to only use packaging that is recyclable or compostable in the communities where it is used, according to a press release from Chesbro’s office.
”Plastic ocean pollution is a persistent and growing problem,” Chesbro said in the release. “Despite international treaties prohibiting dumping plastics at sea and other international, national, state and local action, trash in the ocean is increasing. Trash that washes into our waterways and bays poses a real and pressing threat to marine life. California must take on a leadership role in protecting our oceans.”
Chesbro, who chairs the Assembly Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee, recently held an investigative hearing on ocean pollution and the accumulation of toxic materials in California coastal waters. The testimony given at the hearing is the foundation of Chesbro’s bill. … “
Read more from the Eureka Times-Standard by clicking here.
A sea of plastics
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 27, 2010 at 7:59 amFrom U. S. News & World Report:
“Recent studies show that the oceans may hold more “garbage patches” of fine plastic flotsam than scientists realized and that the fragments extend well below the sea surface.
Most of these items are the size of fingernail clippings or smaller. They are the wave-shattered remnants of items such as rubbish, abandoned fishing gear and floats from fishing nets and scientific instruments. These plastic bits are especially common in a region of the Pacific Ocean southwest of California that is sometimes called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Recent cruises reveal that there’s more garbage in this patch than often meets the eye, oceanographer Giora Proskurowski of the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Mass., reported February 24 at the American Geophysical Union’s Ocean Sciences meeting.
Scientists often tow fine mesh nets behind their boats to conduct a census of floating debris, Proskurowski said. But if researchers tow their nets just at the surface, especially on windy days, they’re likely finding only a fraction of the debris that’s actually present. … “
Continue reading this article from U.S. News & World Report by clicking here.
Trash floats eco-warrior’s boat: David de Rothschild plans to sail the Plastiki, his catamaran made of soda bottles, to the giant floating garbage patch in the Pacific to publicize environmental woes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 21, 2010 at 7:11 am
From the Los Angeles Times:
“Reporting from Sausalito, Calif. – David de Rothschild is talking trash, lots and lots of trash.
“There were 25 billion Styrofoam cups used last year. How do you even get your head around what 25 billion Styrofoam cups looks like?” he said. “Eighty-odd percent of what’s purchased by Americans is thrown out within six months.”
On this day, though, the British banking heir is focused on some very particular refuse as he skims along the San Francisco Bay in a catamaran called Plastiki: The 12,000 or so recycled soda bottles lashed together to build his clunky vessel, and the growing heap of plastic fragments called the Eastern Garbage Patch floating in the Pacific.
If all goes well — so far, it’s been a little hit and miss — De Rothschild hopes to set sail aboard Plastiki in March, tour the garbage patch and end up in Australia, while blogging about the evils of plastic and a consumer society.
He also wants to highlight Plastiki’s innovations, like the glue made of cashew hulls and sugar, which he said “could go to market today and take epoxies — horrible, noxious stuff — off the shelf straightaway.” … “
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Committed to cleaning the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 21, 2009 at 7:01 amFrom the Washington Post:
“In the Pacific Ocean, a floating garbage dump exists between Hawaii and California that is hundreds of thousands square miles wide and has been estimated to contain approximately 3.5 million tons of debris.
This “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is the most extreme example of a serious nationwide and international problem: marine debris dumped into the oceans and waterways.
As director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) marine debris program, it is Holly Bamford’s role to coordinate nationwide clean-up efforts, collaborate internationally on solutions to problems such as the garbage patch and develop prevention methods.
“Marine debris knows no political boundaries. It is an international problem,” Bamford said. “The vision of the program down the road is global oceans and coasts free of the impact of marine debris. The whole purpose is to protect our marine environment.” … “
Read more from the Washington Post by clicking here.
Dan Bacher: Schwarzenegger’s MLPA: Marine life guardians or corporate privateers?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 1, 2009 at 6:49 amFrom Dan Bacher at IndyBay.org, this commentary:
“Tom Stienstra, outdoor columnist for the S.F. Chronicle, yesterday pointed out the absurdity of the people that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Blue Ribbon Task Force (BRTF) for the North Coast by listing the appointees and their “qualifications.”
“Sometimes people take issue with political appointments to committees charged with overseeing the state’s conservation management,” said Stienstra. “The Department of Fish and Game provided this list of committee members who will implement the Marine Life Protection Act for the Northern California coast.
Catherine Reheis-Boyd, chief operating officer and chief of staff, Western States Petroleum Association; Gregory Schem, president and chief executive officer, Harbor Real Estate Group; Jimmy Smith, chair, Humboldt County Board of Supervisors; Virginia Strom-Martin, advocate, Los Angeles Unified School District; William Anderson, president, Westrec Marina Management; Meg Caldwell, director and senior lecturer on law, Stanford Law School Environment and Natural Resources Law and Policy Program; Roberta Cordero, lawyer, co-founder Chumash Maritime Association; Cindy Gustafson, district general manager, Tahoe City Public Utility District.”
I’m one of those people who takes strong issue “with political appointments to committees charged with overseeing the state’s conservation management.” Upon announcing the appointment of the task force, Mike Chrisman, Natural Resources Secretary, claimed, “This diverse and knowledgeable group, that includes local public leaders, will ensure that all interests are heard as the MLPA planning process moves to the north coast.” … “
Read more of Dan Bacher’s commentary by clicking here.
Editorial: Who’ll clean ocean?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 1, 2009 at 6:47 amFrom the Appeal-Democrat, this editorial:
“Percolating in the Pacific Ocean, about halfway between California and Hawaii, is an aquatic landfill commonly called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch … an accumulation of debris that is estimated to be as large as twice the size of Texas.
The trash comes from oceangoing vessels as well as nations bordering the Pacific Basin and is brought to this one location by converging ocean currents that then hold it captive. The plastic that makes up some 90 percent of the debris breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces that float below the ocean’s surface but do not biodegrade. … “
Read the rest of this editorial by clicking here.
Afloat in the ocean, expanding islands of trash
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 10, 2009 at 7:35 am
From the New York Times:
“Aboard the Alguita, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.
Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas. But one research organization estimates that the garbage now actually pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in what oceanographers call a gyre like this one — an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.
Scientists say the garbage patch is just one of five that may be caught in giant gyres scattered around the world’s oceans. Abandoned fishing gear like buoys, fishing line and nets account for some of the waste, but other items come from land after washing into storm drains and out to sea. …”
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Plastic, plastic everywhere, nor any bite to eat: Pacific albatrosses feast on garbage patch offerings
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 28, 2009 at 7:59 am
From the Scientific American:
“As harbingers of ill fate in maritime lore, albatross have, themselves, come to be an indicator for modern-day oceanic pollution. Snatching up floating and near-surface food, Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) in especially trash-strewn tides now pick up a more dangerous repast than they are accustomed to.
“With increasing amounts of marine debris, what once may have been ‘optimal’ foraging strategies for top marine predators, are leading to sub-optimal diets comprised in large part of plastic,” wrote authors of a new paper on the subject.
The new paper, published online Tuesday in PLoS ONE, documents the new, deleterious diets that many of the wide-roving birds now have. …”
Read more from the Scientific American by clicking here.
Crew knows where the ocean trash goes
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 7, 2009 at 7:26 amFrom the Daily Breeze:
“The ocean-research vessel Algalita and crew returned Tuesday to Southern California, carrying more dismal evidence about ocean pollution. Along the trip, the crew collected trash samples and studied the patterns that bits of garbage and plastic travel in the vast ocean.
The journey – to an area known as “the great Pacific Garbage Patch” – was the 10th for Capt. Charles Moore. And his last – for now, at least. “It’s too dangerous,” Moore said after his return to a port in Long Beach. “It’s too scary.”
Debris in the water can catch in the ship’s propellers and create engine hazards. Moore said extensive work will be needed so that the propellers on the 50-foot vessel are protected. “It will have to be like a bumper car,” he quipped. … “
Read more from the Daily Breeze by clicking here.
Yolo County Creek cleanup day to keep trash from flowing to the sea
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 31, 2009 at 12:50 pmFrom The Davis Enterprise:
“The largest landfill in the world is not, in fact, on land. It floats in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Western Garbage Patch, between Hawaii and California, is twice the size of Texas. Ninety percent of the patch is floating plastic.
What’s a local, community-minded person to do? Libby Earthman, executive director of the Putah Creek Council, says volunteering for the Yolo County Creek Cleanup — on Saturday, Sept. 19 — is a great place to start. “We encourage people of all ages and abilities to come out to our waterways and help pick up trash,” she said in a news release. “It’s something tangible that people can do to learn about how little things they do affect life downstream.”
While some of the trash found in local waterways is illegally dumped there, much of it makes its way into creeks by way of stormwater drains. “When you see a piece of trash in the gutter, floating toward a drain, most people assume that the water and floating trash are heading to the water treatment plant. They are not. They drain directly into creeks, or in Davis, into stormwater collection ponds,” Earthman said. …”
Read more from The Davis Enterprise by clicking here.
Pacific Ocean garbage patch worries researchers
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 28, 2009 at 8:11 amFrom 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.
Millions of tons of plastic debris floating in oceans is now thought to be toxic
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 21, 2009 at 8:59 amFrom AlterNet:
“Scientists have identified a new source of chemical pollution released by the huge amounts of plastic rubbish found floating in the oceans of the world. A study has found that as plastics break down in the sea they release potentially toxic substances not found in nature and which could affect the growth and development of marine organisms.
Until now it was thought that plastic rubbish is relatively stable chemically and, apart from being unsightly, its principle threat to living creatures came from its ability to choke or strangle any animals that either got caught in it or ingested it thinking it was food.
But the latest research suggests that plastic is also a source of dissolved substances that can easily become widely dispersed in the marine environment. Many of these chemicals are believed to toxic to humans and animals, the scientists said. …”
Read more from AlterNet by clicking here.
The North Pacific Gyre: 100 million tons of garbage and growing
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 19, 2009 at 7:36 am
From Environmental Graffiti:
“In 1967, American Charles Moore was sailing his yacht back to California after participating in the Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. He chose a short cut usually avoided by sailors and entered the North Pacific Gyre….
In a gyre, very little wind and extremely high pressure weather systems combine to greatly reduce ocean circulation. The largest marine ocean ecosystems are subtropical gyres which cover 40% of the earth’s surface. These immense regions of slowly spiraling warm equatorial air pull in winds and converging sea currents. Everything in a gyre moves slowly. Yachtsmen avoid them because there is too little wind for effective sailing. Gyres are the ‘doldrums’ of maritime history and legends. They contain regions of ‘dead calm’ where no wind blows for several days. Surface chlorophyll density is low, plant and animal growth and biomass is low as well.
Expecting little excitement and a slow uneventful cruise towards California, Moore was soon to have a shocking, unexpected experience. …”
Read more of this story, which includes lots of pictures, by clicking here.
Pacific Ocean houses world’s biggest landfill
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 6, 2009 at 10:57 pm
From Accu-Weather:
“The Pacific Ocean, the biggest and deepest body of water in the world, covers about 46 percent of the Earth’s surface and is home to millions of marine animals. The ocean is also home to arguably one of the biggest and most unpleasant manmade phenomena in existence, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The floating mass of trash, located north of the Hawaiian Islands, is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and is made up of at least two smaller patches, the largest of which is estimated to contain at least 3.5 million pounds of trash, according to www.greatgarbagepatch.org.
The phenomenon is caused by a gyre, or a collision of warm and cold oceanic currents, known as the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ). This current acts like a vortex and swirls most of the trash into the middle of the ocean. …”
Read more from Accu-Weather by clicking here.
Texas-sized patch of plastic debris draws activist attention
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 3, 2009 at 6:59 amFrom the San Diego News Network:
“Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins have a message in a bottle that they just cycled 2,000 miles to deliver.
There is a patch of plastic debris slowly circulating in the Pacific Ocean that covers the size of Texas. It has doubled in size in the past 10 years and there is new evidence to suggest that the toxins it harbors are making their way into our food supply.
The couple, who work for the nonprofit environmental group Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF), stopped at Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach on June 27 after they had completed a 2,000-mile cycle from Vancouver to Tijuana to raise awareness about a heavily polluted area of the Pacific Ocean known as the Eastern Garbage Patch. Eriksen and Cummins spoke with surfers and locals about their journey and mission and plan to return to give a full presentation to the nonprofit San Diego Coastkeeper in the fall.
The bike trip was part of a campaign called Junk Ride 2009 that gave Eriksen and Cummins the opportunity to speak at 40 events, meet with five mayors and deliver bottles of plastic-laden water samples that they took from the Eastern Garbage Patch in the Northern Pacific Gyre a year ago. The Gyre is a remote area of the Pacific Ocean approximately 2,000 miles from the coast where the confluence of currents sets up a slowly rotating mass of water larger than the United States that traps the plastic debris in a massive gyre, or circular swirl. …”
Read more from the San Diego News Network by clicking here.
Researchers launch study of ocean garbage patch: Scripps, Project Kaisei set sail on 4-week, $1.1 million inquiry
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 30, 2009 at 7:41 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
A plastic vortex of trash twice the size of Texas floats about 1,000 miles off the coast of California, invisible to the naked eye.
Just about the only thing researchers know for sure about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is that it can’t be good for the environment. The plastic and toxins it attracts have become a part of the Pacific Ocean’s ecosystem, killing everything from fish to birds to sea turtles.
On Sunday, researchers from UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla and Project Kaisei, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, will board two ships for a $1.1 million, nearly four-week voyage that will launch the most extensive study of the waterborne landfill to date.
Project Kaisei founder Doug Woodring says his ultimate goal – after several more trips – is to clean up the mess, a feat that several leading researchers have said is impossible. But even in the worst-case scenario, the voyage will raise awareness about the harmful effects of plastic products, Woodring said. “Everyone has said that it’s too big and there’s no way to fix it,” he said. “We think that if we made the problem, there must be a way to solve the problem. Informing people is the first step.”
Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
Plastiki, a ship of plastic bottles, hopes to send eco-message
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 26, 2009 at 6:17 amFrom the Fresno Bee:
You’ve heard of a ship in a bottle. How about a ship made of plastic bottles? That would be the Plastiki, designed to sail the Pacific on an 11,000-mile voyage highlighting the dangers of living in a throwaway world.
“Waste is fundamentally a design flaw. We wanted to design a vessel that would epitomize waste being used as a resource,” said expedition leader David de Rothschild.
The boat is named in honor of the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft sailed across the Pacific by explorer Thor Heyerdahl, an ocean adventure that inspired de Rothschild.
There’s a bit more of a tie-in. One of the Plastiki team members is Josian Heyerdahl, the explorer’s granddaughter. An environmental scientist who works on business sustainability issues, Heyerdahl, 25, became part of the project after reading about it and introducing herself to de Rothschild.
The plan is to sail all the way to Australia. Find out more from the Fresno Bee by clicking here.
Voyage to the Pacific Ocean’s ‘Garbage Patch’
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 19, 2009 at 7:05 amFrom Scientific American:
Editor’s Note: Scuba instructor and underwater videographer Drew Wheeler is traveling on board the Algalita Marine Research Foundation’s 50-foot (15.2-meter) Ocean Research Vessel, Alguita, on a two-month voyage to sample and study portions of a 10-million-square-mile (25.9-million-square-kilometer) oval known as the North Subtropical Gyre (a.k.a. “Pacific Garbage Patch”). Wheeler and the rest of the Alguita crew left Long Beach, Calif., on June 10 with a plan to cross the International Date Line and investigate regions of reported high plastic concentrations, northwest of the Hawaiian Islands. This is his first blog post for ScientificAmerican.com.
June 17, 2009
Over 1,100 miles (1,770.3 kilometers) traveled.
Well, we are one week into our journey, and already Mother Nature has proved to be the boss. We expected to have a day or two of northwesterly winds. But we thought once we left shore behind, our catamaran would catch the prevailing northeast trade winds and take us to our objective—the international dateline, north of Hawaii.
Not so fast. We had five days straight of almost pure north wind that kept pushing us farther and farther south. At one point Alguita Captain Charles Moore made the famous call, “We can’t there from here.” So we then started discussing other objectives, finally settling on an area where some plankton are blooming, just northeast of the Hawaiian island chain.
There is a theory that the same current and weather patterns that lead to plankton clouds may also corral the plastics on the ocean surface, so we are going to see if this is the case. According to [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)] coastal watch scientist Dave Foley, there is a bloom occurring as we speak, and we are only a few days away, so we are going for it.
Read more from Scientific American by clicking here.
De-mystifying the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “Trash Vortex”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 8, 2009 at 6:42 am
From Axis of Logic, a Q&A article on the Pacific Ocean garbage patch:
Q. Where is the “garbage patch”?
The concentrations of marine debris (“garbage patches”) that have been covered in the media are within the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ) (see map, Convergence Zone) – sometimes referred to as the “trash superhighway” that connects the “eastern and western garbage patches”. It is our belief that these “patches” lie within the STCZ.
The North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ) is a known area of marine debris accumulation in the North Pacific Ocean. This area does not have distinct boundaries and varies in strength and location throughout the year. This amorphous area moves seasonally between 23° and 37° N latitude. The STCZ shifts farther southward during periods of El Niño.
Read more from the Axis of Logic by clicking here.
Dan Haifley, Ocean Backyard: Can the Pacific’s plastic wasteland be fixed?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 31, 2009 at 7:12 amFrom columnist Dan Haifley and the Silicon Valley Mercury News:
Project Kaisei is the name bestowed on a fledgling effort — which has its skeptics — to capture plastic waste caught in giant swirling gyres in the north Pacific and turn it into diesel fuel. It is derived from “Kaisei” — an ancient Japanese term for ocean planet.
To be successful the project would have to sweep an area twice the size of Texas, which is alternately called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the plastic vortex, or the plastic continent. It would be a massive undertaking in a harsh environment.
Over 100 million tons of waste reside there — it’s where much of the junk floating down our streams and rivers winds up. Once on the high seas, plastic becomes degraded by the sun and saltwater, breaking it into tiny particles which mostly become embedded below the ocean’s surface.
This June the 151-foot Japanese sailing vessel “Kaisei,” operated by a California-based conservation group called the Ocean Voyages Institute, will unfurl its sails in San Francisco and head seaward to assess how to implement the project. The flagship will be joined by a decommissioned fishing trawler with specialized nets. If they are successful, the next step will be to capture and process the waste.
Read more of Dan’s column from the Silicon Valley Mercury News by clicking here.
Ocean, interrupted: How single-use plastics are littering the ocean and disrupting the food web
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 29, 2009 at 8:02 am
From the Chico News & Review:
Imagine a clogged toilet of colorful plastic confetti. As the water turns, the scraps wash against the porcelain rim and back again. The mechanical churning erodes the plastics, forming a swirling mass of debris.
Now imagine fishing here for dinner.
That’s the North Pacific gyre: 10 million square miles of open ocean currents, circulating in a continental bowl formed by North America and Asia—littered like the morning after bar mitzvah.
Popular myth describes the gyre as a vortex of garbage twice the size of Texas—an island of waste suspended off the shipping lanes between California and Hawaii. But the Pacific “garbage patch” is more ocean than anything. What exists is a stewing flotsam of convenience, fully enmeshed with the marine ecosystem, drifting to and fro among nations. “This is what you get when you skim the ocean surface,” said Marcus Eriksen, while holding up a syrup bottle of murky brown water to a group of Chico State students last week. “Two-thirds of the Earth’s ocean is now a plastic soup.”
Swirling the bottle, pale speckles of plastic no larger than a pearl clustered at the bottleneck. Eriksen said the worn and polished beads could have been anything, from water bottles to straws to picnic utensils from the Fourth of July of 1997. In a steady march toward the sea, the runoff of single-use plastics parade through watersheds to the Bay Delta, and then out to sea to float off to the great “away.”
Read more from the Chico News & Review by clicking here.
Voyage to the centre of the ‘Plastic Vortex’
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 25, 2009 at 8:07 amFrom AFP:
A group of conservationists and scientists is due to set sail for an obscure corner of the Pacific Ocean in the coming months to explore a vast swirl of waste known as the “Plastic Vortex.” The giant gloop — which some scientists estimate is twice the size of Texas — has been gradually building over the last 60 years as Asia and the United States tossed their unwanted goods into the ocean.
Everything from flip-flops to plastic bags have been slowly broken down by the sun’s rays into small particles, and ocean tides have meant much of it has settled in a spiralling pattern just below the ocean surface between Hawaii and the mainland United States.
After only coming to scientific attention in recent years, little remains known about the vortex, also known as the “Eastern Garbage Patch,” so the expedition hopes to find out if the plastic can be fished out of the sea — and what can be done with it.
Jim Dufour, a senior engineer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, who is advising the trip, said establishing the extent of the problem was vital for the future health of the oceans.
“Importance is an understatement, it’s imperative. It will take many years to understand and fix the problem,” he told AFP.
Read more from AFP by clicking here.
The plastics “out there” [in the ocean] and “in here” [inside our homes and our bodies]
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 13, 2009 at 7:51 amFrom Wallace J. Nichols of the Huffington Post:
There’s a patch of ocean out there about as far as you can get from people on this small blue marble we call Earth, and it is slowly filling with tiny flecks of plastic.
First, they said it was a “large area” the size of Texas. Then it was two Texases. Then, a continent. They said the plastic fragments outnumbered plankton, then later that there was six times, and then seven, and now thirty times as much plastic as plankton. They call it the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the Trash Island, The North Pacific Gyre, or the Pacific Trash Vortex. It’s described as an oceanic trash dump, a giant bowl of plastic soup, a place where sea turtles and albatrosses fill their stomachs with lighters and bottle caps.
I know of a half-dozen expeditions now mounting or planned to visit this heart of the plastic problem… “out there.” But, here’s what else I know: they don’t need to go “out there” to see the problem, because the problem is “in here,” too.
And over there, where you are.
It’s in the Sargasso Sea and the Mediterranean. It’s in our lakes and rivers. It’s on remote sea turtle beaches in the South Pacific. It’s in your kitchen. And, it’s in your blood.
Read more of Wallace’s commentary by clicking here.
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