The Trash Vortex

I've recently learned of the Great Pacific Trash Gyre, which is basically a concentrated section of ocean about the size of the continental US of "trash soup". So now I'm gonna educate you on it, in case you're one of those weird people who think that the recycling is too difficult or that we're not actually having any significant impact on the environment.

Ocean currents, (in addition to air currents) pull large amounts of ocean debris to this area where it slowly swirls around. 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 world's largest landfill, and it's smack in the middle of the ocean. The gyre has actually given birth to two large masses of ever-accumulating trash, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. The Eastern Garbage Patch floats between Hawaii and California, and is roughly the size of Texas. The Western Garbage Patch forms east of Japan and west of Hawaii. Each swirling mass of refuse is massive and collects trash from all over the world.
Much of the plastic is in very small pieces floating under the surface of the water, going about 100 feet deep, meaning capturing a photograph of the patch is not possible. Because the garbage is so small and scattered, clean-up is also incredibly difficult, without endangering sea life.

The only way to truly understand the depth of the trash is by doing a trawl, which entails dragging a net with a bucket attached to it off the back of a boat. Here is a picture of what a normal trawl should produce....zooplankton, occasional small fish, seaweed, etc. Now, contrast that with the contents of a trawl done in the Pacific Garbage Patch. And then we wonder why beautiful Hawaiian beaches sometimes look like this.

Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Most of the pieces are in such tiny pieces that the only way to clean it up would be high intensity trawling similar to shrimp trawling. The thing about shrimp trawling is that it kills 10 pounds of non-targeted sea life (dolphins, sharks, turtles, whatever) for every ONE pound of shrimp gathered, making the impact on the marine life far greater than what it's potentially worth to clean up such a massive area of trash. Bottom line is, we just have to live with it and make every effort to not make it any bigger.

The main problem with plastic -- besides there being so much of it -- is that it doesn't biodegrade. No natural process can break it down. (Experts point out that the durability that makes plastic so useful to humans also makes it quite harmful to nature.) These tiny plastic particles can get sucked up by filter feeders and damage their bodies. Other marine animals or sea birds (specifically albatross) eat the plastic, which can poison them or lead to deadly blockages. This has many other far-reaching consequences on the food chain and marine life that I won't go into here, but even if you're not all that concerned about ocean life, consider that in some cases, that ocean life makes it's way to your dinner plate. And some plastics can become toxic and if they're ingested by that salmon that you're about to eat.....well, you get the idea.

It comes down to managing waste on land, where most of the trash originates. So, I know I've said it before, but we could all use to do a little better at our consumption in general, but especially of plastics. At the very least, recycle your plastics. Don't you think our home deserves a little better care and maintenance? It makes me sad what we're doing to our earth.....

Here's some more links, if you're interested in reading more:

Altered Oceans - a great series by the LA Times, with videos and lots of other info

GreenYour.com - a cool resource for how to green up any area of your life.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch: Out of Sight, Out of Mind - great article by treehugger.com


Okay, stepping down now. :)