The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

[lorenk]

Oprah interviewed Fabien Cousteau on her Earth Day episode (today). He'll be on PBS tonight on his show.

I'm sure many of the reefers on the site are aware of the giant mess we have created. This trash dump is twice the size of Texas. Anyone ever driven across Texas?

We are now at the point where beluga whales are ingesting so many toxins that they are developing breast cancer.

The question I have is once you realize this, how do you make a difference? Stop using plastic bags is a good start. What are other ideas?

http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090422-tows-ocean-pollution">http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20090422-tows-ocean-pollution</a>

[IMG]http://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/index.html">http://www.pbs.org/kqed/oceanadventures/index.html</a>

 

[fish scales2]

Isnt that just ridiculous, I watched a special a little while back showing how much trash has accumulated between Cali and the Hawiian Isles.
DISTURBING VERY DISTURBING

 

[lorenk]

That's exactly it.

 

[lees]

Sickening that there are people who will sacrifice the environment for convenience.

 

[dakota9]

That article left me wanting more pictures of the problem, since this is the first I've heard of the issue.

Check these out;

 

[jesspete]

Thanks, D.

 

[jesspete]

Found this when looking for pics.

 

[jesspete]

Author states that plastic isn't visible, it's suspended in water column.

Here's what they call a bongo trawl in normal waters

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and some of it's catch

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Wouldn't let me hot link these pics for some reason.

Here's same trawl in gyre. Looks normal

Except for the catch.
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[lorenk]

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Oprah showed this pic on her show.

 

[drnecropolis]

That makes me mad as hell and sad at the same time........

What would Duff Man do?

 

[jericholic]

How did CNN and FOX not pic this up? This is the first time ive honestly ever heard of the massive pollution.

 

[skriz]

I've been following this for some time now. Nobody wants to take responsibility for it and it's very easy to pretend it doesn't exist. It's also not a big money maker like global warming, so nobody wants to publicize it. This is something that can actually be remedied, unlike global warming, yet nobody cares. Another issue is what to do with the trash is we were to collect it...shove it in the ground like we're currently doing?

It's really sad.

 

[lorenk]

I don't think that it can be fixed. Twice the size of Texas is a bit much to clean up. In a relative sense, it's a fraction of the size of the Pacific and the most important thing to do is to stop it from getting bigger.

Btw, this occurs in every ocean.