Pacific Trash Vortex! Wow! I had no idea it was this bad!

[undrwater]

Bump for relevance and further info...

 

[smellzlikefish]

That mass of debris is already showing up on the Washington & Oregon coast lines. A 60' floating dock beached last week in Oregon. There was a pile of debris with a Harley Davidson motorcycle wadded up in it that landed on a Washington beach the week before.
I would guess it will cause massive devistation to the undersea wildlife over the next year or so.

The tsunami debris is a drop in the bucket compared to what is already out there. The beaches in the northwestern Hawaiian Islands are touched by maybe a dozen people every year, yet the amount of crap that washes up there is disgusting. The first time I visited Laysan, literally half of the composition of the beach was sand with the rest being discarded fishing buoys, line, slippers, sneakers, bottles, etc. Every other year, NOAA goes up and picks up well over 30 tons (sometimes 60) of fishing gear alone from the shallow reefs and beaches up there, and that's just what they happen to come across in the limited time allotted.

For clarity, the video that was posted is a bit misleading. The "Garbage Patch" isn't a thick, island-like floating mass. The images used in the video were taken from embayments and coastal areas with high concentrations of garbage (Note the canoeist-you don't take a river canoe out in the middle of the ocean). The NPGP is simply an area of higher concentration. Keep in mind that it moves, changes size, dissipates and sinks in accordance with prevailing conditions. It isn't always present. Some expeditions to study it have come back with nothing more than a single ghost net.

The message, however, is clear. We are using plastics at a far greater rate than our planet can support. Banning plastic bags is just the start. If you really want to put a stop to this pollution, fundamental changes in our lifestyle have to come first.

 

[Peter_C]

Banning plastic bags is just the start. If you really want to put a stop to this pollution, fundamental changes in our lifestyle have to come first.

I am happy to say Mendocino County in California just banned plastic bags effective December 1st 2012

"In California, 14 billion plastic shopping bags are distributed annually, according to the organization. Only 3 percent are recycled"

 

[Shaka Doug]

Holy Cow. I just revisited this page thanks to a PM I got from someone a few minutes ago and the last post was exactly a year ago today. So I guess that means it's been dormant for a year.

Dude...

Weird 'cuz earlier today I posted a link in another thread I just started to the Directors Cut of Aqua Seafoam Shame Feature Length...

[video=youtube;bR0F_4GUgW8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR0F_4GUgW8[/video]

not really wanting to drag this Old Post back up intentionally 'cuz I know people don't like "downers" but I guess it was inevitable that it would surface again eventually.

You're welcome.

Weird how timing works...The trailer for Aqua Seafoam Shame was actually posted here almost exactly a year and a half ago from today too. Coinky-dink?

These things sure take time to get rolling.

Recycle anyone?