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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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  • The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

    What a mess...
    "In the broad expanse of the northern Pacific Ocean, there exists the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents. The area is an oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and sailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It's the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean..." http://science.howstuffworks.com/env...bage-patch.htm

    And news from the Uto Ni Yalo Fijian Canoe concerning the trash...
    "The flotilla of double-hulled sailing canoes that left the Hawaiian Islands more than a week ago has encountered masses of rubbish floating in the northeastern Pacific. Capt. Johnathan Smith, aboard the Fijian canoe Uto Ni Yalo, said they have been passing through so much rubbish that it's difficult to keep a list of it in the log. "That's how much rubbish is out here," Smith wrote on the vessel's blog. "It is shocking here in the North Pacific." ... http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/2..._voyagers.html

    Wonder if we could actually clean it up?
    Of course we'd then be bringing it to land.
    Life is either an adventure... or you're not doing it right!!!

  • #2
    Re: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

    Besides the large pieces of rubbish, there is the problem of PLASTIC:
    But once it does split into pieces, the fragments look like confetti in the water. Millions, billions, trillions and more of these particles are floating in the world’s trash-filled gyres.

    PCBs, DDT and other toxic chemicals cannot dissolve in water, but the plastic absorbs them like a sponge. Fish that feed on plankton ingest the tiny plastic particles. Scientists from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation say that fish tissues contain some of the same chemicals as the plastic. The scientists speculate that toxic chemicals are leaching into fish tissue from the plastic they eat.

    The researchers say that when a predator — a larger fish or a person — eats the fish that eats the plastic, that predator may be transferring toxins to its own tissues, and in greater concentrations since toxins from multiple food sources can accumulate in the body.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10patch.html
    Now run along and play, but don’t get into trouble.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

      "The researchers say that when a predator — a larger fish or a person — eats the fish that eats the plastic, that predator may be transferring toxins to its own tissues, and in greater concentrations since toxins from multiple food sources can accumulate in the body. "

      The higher level predator, the higher the concentrations. If we ate only sharks, billfish, and other top predators, we'd be in deep kim chee. Thank goodness for chicken.


      I guess in the south Pacific it would turn counter-clockwise.

      A spoof on: WB Yeats - The Second Coming (with apologies to poets everywhere)

      Turning and turning in the widening gyre
      The plastic cannot hear the litterer;
      Trash disintegrates; the centre cannot hold;
      Garbage anarchy is loosed upon the seas,
      The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
      The ceremony of purity is drowned;
      The worst lack all conviction, while the best
      Are full of passionate intensity.

      Surely some cleansing is at hand;
      Surely the Second Chance is offered.
      The Second Chance! Hardly are those words out
      When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
      Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
      A hole from which dread petrol has been pumped,
      A hole as deep as mind and pitiless as entropy,
      Aches to be filled, while all about it
      Reel shadows of the indignant desert refineries,
      Eager to reclaim their offspring, now floating.
      The plastic gyre spins; but now I know
      That two centuries of progress
      Were vexed to nightmare by a needy vehicle,
      And people of all description seeking ease from their labors,
      Continue the cycle creating the gyre.
      Last edited by Kaonohi; July 22, 2011, 02:19 PM.
      Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
      ~ ~
      Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
      Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
      Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

      Comment


      • #4
        Oops - 2X post

        Slipped, clicked twice.
        No way to delete mistake messages?
        Last edited by Kaonohi; July 22, 2011, 02:24 PM.
        Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Taken!
        ~ ~
        Kaʻonohiʻulaʻokahōkūmiomioʻehiku
        Spreading the virus of ALOHA.
        Oh Chu. If only you could have seen what I've seen, with your eyes.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

          A cool and honest poem.
          And a sad situation seafood becoming poisonous to us, as we pollute them.
          I enjoy eating everything I can from the oceans.
          Life is either an adventure... or you're not doing it right!!!

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

            Some of the first debris of the fukushima event is starting to arrive on Washington state beaches.
            These are thought to be large fishing net floats.
            Somewhat behind these early arrivals is a mass of rubbish as large as the state
            of California.
            Hopefully not so hot with radiation so as to glow at night.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

              Originally posted by lensperson View Post
              Some of the first debris...
              There is sooo much trash just from this event making it's way across the Pacific along with all the trash from everywhere else too!

              We'll see how this ends up affecting Hawai'i beaches and tourism, eh?!
              Life is either an adventure... or you're not doing it right!!!

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

                Among the more interesting things I have found on local beaches was a stash of Russian trash, probably ejected from a sub. These were mainly aerosol cans with Russian writing on them. I took them down to the Coast Guard station, they kept it for a few days and looked it over then gave it back, it is now filed somewhere in the garage, God only knows where. Also found a coconut on the beach once after a big "Pineapple Express" storm cleared. It sure didn't come from Mexico. And a cap from Australia One the day after the boat sank in the Americas Cup races off Pt. Loma (dubbed The Coma At Point Loma because of the mellow winds). I do not look forward to finding any of the Japanese debris on the beach, it represents way too much tragedy.

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