The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

R.A. Hettinga rah at shipwright.com
Tue Aug 4 15:21:36 PDT 2009


Ideal seasteading grounds...

'til navy.gov sinks you for "international environmental piracy", or
something. :-)

Somewhere Neal Stephenson -- and a guy with "Poor Impulse Control"
tatooed on his forehead -- laughs.

Cheers,
RAH
-------


<http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090804/us_nm/us_ocean_plastics/print>

Yahoo

Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific
By Steve Gorman
Tue Aug 4, 8:42 am ET

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."

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.

The expedition will study how much debris -- mostly tiny plastic
fragments -- is collecting in an expanse of sea known as the North
Pacific Ocean Gyre, how that material is distributed and how it
affects marine life.

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 States.

The focus of the study will be on plankton, other microorganisms,
small fish and birds.

"The concern is what kind of impact those plastic bits are having on
the small critters on the low end of the ocean food chain," Bob Knox,
deputy director of research at Scripps, said on Monday after the ship
had spent its first full day at sea.

The 170-foot vessel New Horizon is equipped with a laboratory for on-
board research, but scientists also will bring back samples for
further study.

Little is known about the exact size and scope of the vast debris
field discovered some years ago by fishermen and others in the North
Pacific that is widely referred to as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

Large items readily visible from the deck of a boat are few and far
between. Most of the debris consists of small plastic particles
suspended at or just below the water surface, making it impossible to
detect by aircraft or satellite images.

The debris zone shifts by as much as a thousand miles north and south
on a seasonal basis, and drifts even farther south during periods of
warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures known as El Nino, according to
information from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA).

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.





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