From Reuters:
LOS ANGELES, Aug 3 (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.”
A research vessel carrying a team of about 30 researchers, technicians and crew members embarked on Sunday on a three-week voyage from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, based at the University of California at San Diego.
When Shifting Baselines announced the Rotten Jellyfish Awards for the top ten worst ocean decline stories of 2003, this artificial ‘plastic’ island came in at number 7. But in all seriousness, ocean currents have amassed so much garbage in the Pacific that there’s a collection of floating refuse estimated to be larger than Texas.
In other words, it’s past time for us to start to pay attention to this environmental disaster. You bet I’ll be following along…
August 4th, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Is the research vessel really a three-master?
August 4th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
150 million years from now, when Rodentia Sapiens extends its mining operations to the deep ocean, they will discover the biggest ore body of a high-energy mineral rich in complex hydrocarbons. Having discovered smaller ore bodies with similar constitution, they will engage in furious debate as to whether it was created by natural forces or by God (who has a long snout and whiskers). (Oh, and their favorite cartoon character will be Mickey Monkey.)
August 4th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
@1 William Furr
The ship pictured is the Kaisei, which left San Francisco today.
August 4th, 2009 at 6:24 pm
Off topic; the Pfizer ads currently on the Discovery blogs (top and/or top right with annoying video) are evil — don’t click on/or even hover over it, as that will bring up a large dialog whose ‘X’ (close) control links to a full page add! I complained to the webmaster, no response.
August 4th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Surly, you need to use FireFox with Adblock plus.
The only ad I see on this page is for the unscientific america book and discovery.com’s energy forum.
Sweet ship!
August 5th, 2009 at 11:14 am
Can you see it on google maps?
August 5th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
So is there any evidence that an “artificial ‘plastic’ island” actually exists?
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4132
August 5th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Fitz, evidently that’s just part of effective science communication. Sometimes you have to make stuff up to get the hoi polloi interested.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Fitz,
There is no “island” of plastic garbage, by which I mean one that you could presumably step onto and hang out there.
There is however an area of ocean roughly the size of Texas in which if you were to scoop up water you would invariably collect several grams of small plastic debris, ranging in size from microns to bouys and tangles of net (several meters wide).
So don’t think of it as an island, but rather a texas sized plastic film resting on the ocean’s surface.
August 7th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Here is a visualization: http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/0905/trans0509throughthegyre.html
August 7th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
If the ocean currents are going to concentrate it, it sounds like a good opportunity to scoop it up and dispose of it safely.
tOM
August 25th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I have read several articles on this, and my skeptecism is on the decline I admit. The theme of all of the articles that I have read thus far however seems to be focused on what thy gyre actually is, where it is, and if it in fact “is”. Do you guys know of any serious agencies/endeavours to get started on either cleaning this mess up or figuring out how to get started cleaning it up? As a fish eater myself, I am very concerned and would like to help.
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