"Great Pacific Garbage Patch." - 100's of miles across being studied by scientists

This is both very interesting and sad at once.

Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Marine scientists from California are venturing this week to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of miles (km) of open sea dubbed the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

Seriously, what are we doing to our planet?

The debris ends up concentrated by circular, clockwise ocean currents within an oblong-shaped "convergence zone" hundreds of miles (km) across from end to end near the Hawaiian Islands, about midway between Japan and the West Coast of the United State

Besides the potential harm to sea life caused by ingesting bits of plastic, the expedition team will look at whether the particles could carry other pollutants, such as pesticides, far out to sea, and whether tiny organisms attached to the debris could be transported to distant regions and thus become invasive species.

I know this is just a feature of ocean currents, but if it is truly hundeds of miles across it is quite disgusting. I wonder if it could be cleaned up. Although it's not hundreds of miles of solid debris it's still got to be a huge amount of plastic, the marine life must be taking a hammering.

Hope they release the findings of their investigation.

[edit on 4-8-2009 by kiwifoot]

Sounds like those scientists are doing the same thing my kids do when there is a mess to clean up. They look at it.

for the money our country is putting in the war itself, we could most likely devise some sort of machine/filter/microbe/ that could tackle this.

there IS the team that recently found the plastic eating microbe, but who knows the implications of that...

According to the the Wikipedia post on this topic, the Pacific Garbage Patch has been known about since 1988. Here is that link:

en.wikipedia.org...

And here is a recent brief discussion on the NRDC website about that Garbage Patch:

www.onearth.org...

That NRDC story also links to video footage of the Pacific Garbage Patch taken by a contributor to the Daily Kos blog.

[edit on 8/4/2009 by Uphill]

I bet this is totally blown out of proportion.

Where is the proof ? Where are the photos?

And sorry, a photo of a 20foot x 20 foot area of water with 15 pieces of garbage does not constitute a " 100's of miles across garbage patch."

Just show me the proof it is really that big and obscene. I believe there is pollution in the ocean yes, it needs to be cleaned up.

But 100's of miles wide? What a bunch of BS...

Talk about blowing everything out of proportion. Any agenda here?

reply to post by Uphill


Even that wiki article has no evidence. Just drawings and a photo of a bird skeleton On The Shoreline. Hell they could have found the bird Skelly and put the plastic there and claimed this bs.

I just require evidence to believe in something this huge.

Of course we pollute the ocean, but 100's of miles wide seems way bigger than what I think is physically possible at this stage of development.

reply to post by muzzleflash


Sorry, I had to hunt a few seconds to find the NRDC link. The good news, I found it and edited it in to my above comment, AND it contains video footage of that Garbage Patch.

Now that I think about it, there's probably lots more video footage on YouTube on that topic. ...Yes, there are several clips there, including this one that aired on ABC TV a few days ago:

www.youtube.com...


[edit on 8/4/2009 by Uphill]

reply to post by muzzleflash


I seen a show on history channel one time. They showed the patch and it is hundreds of miles wide. It is really there. What can be done about it? I was thinking maybe nets to scoop it and dispose of it properly.

Is this the same patch I heard about on C2C a couple of years ago? Then it was said to be large enough and dense enough to land a small plane on it. But it was reported to be in the South Pacific. The guest on the show suggested this patch was governed by the same "rules" that oversee the creation of dust bunnies and also those bits of hair I have in my house, where the dog fur collects in bunches, instead of just lying about nilly willy. Yuck! Ever clean out the drain in a bathtub after 3 longhaired teenage girls have showered and washed and rinsed their hair, and eek, blew their noses in the shower? LOL Gag. That's what this massive plastic mass reminds me of.

it does exist, it has been discussed on ats many times.

I've even heard it to be bigger than texas, but who knows.

It's plastic...lots of plastic....
Now look around you right now....see any plastic? Know what the problem is?

reply to post by muzzleflash


Let's hope this thread Plastic toxic soup quenches your thirst for evidence.

Check the links provided.

This is not new and has been discussed for quite a few years. Like everything else, we only get fed bits of 'news' every now and then just to make a point that someone is trying to do some good while we continue to allow corporations force feed us plastic for our disposal.

Well IMO they wouldn't be able to clean it up... I mean where they gonna put all that trash. They could recycle it I guess....

If it were me, I would turn it into an floating island. It already floats and it is huge. I think Dubai has a few man-made islands.

Granted I doubt they were made on top of a heaping pile of garbage tho.