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

[sea nmf]

Drew,

What is the mission of the voyage? I understand that you are making a documentary.

Does the voyage have another mission besides showing the horror of the trash?

[reefraff]

I agree with you. To all whom I offended, please accept my sincere apologies. I was trying to be funny regarding additional taxes. This is not the place for it. It came across, when re-reading it after your post, as arrogant and derogatory.

Again, I apologize.

[Lopaka]

To all whom I offended, please accept my sincere apologies. I was trying to be funny regarding additional taxes. This is not the place for it. It came across, when re-reading it after your post, as arrogant and derogatory.

I found it surprisingly insulting as it came from you, who normally does not take sides politically or tip your hand as to your politics.

[sea nmf]

Again, I apologize.

My meaning wasn't meant to be political but it came across that way. And I truly did not mean to be insulting; however I see by using the term conservative that it was. I should not have said anything at all.

[Thadmn]

Wow....In one respect at least it looks like it could be fixed if, BIG IF, all countries would contribute to the cost os scooping it up. Could it be possible, if it is at a depth of 10 meters, a big net could be used to scoop it up and haul it away? I know it seems monumental but it could it be done? Thanks for the post Doug....

Hey! Good Idea. Let's just get a big net....twice the size of Texas, ten meters deep. We could like take a big helicopter...and ...and...then scoop it up, and haul it away.......Hmm..... haul it away to...um...drop into a volcano maybe? I hear there's one in Hawaii. Or like maybe we could put it on a big rocket ship and shoot it right into the sun! Yea, that's the ticket!

I'm sorry, but are you blonde by any chance? Just kidding!

Seriously though, it's sad the way we package everything in single use plastic containers. Not only does it end up in the ocean, but on our front yards. Many, many people lack the personal responsibility neccessary to stop this problem. It chaps my ass when I see crap being thrown out of car windows all the time to the point of where I've actually chased them down to "thank" them for throwing their garbage in my neighborhood. One day, I could get shot for doing this.

I agree with Dr. Bill as far as this needs to be stopped at the source. If I were a cop, I'd be handing out $700 littering tickets when I saw someone flicking a cigarette butt out the window. I'm afraid it will get a lot worse before enough people will actually do something effective. We wouldn't have to "adopt a highway" if the offenders would just keep their garbage to themselves. We are conditioned to produce garbage. Most have a 30 gallon garbage container that gets hauled away. Out of sight, out of mind. It's all got to go somewhere. I quit my garbage service, and now I produce less than one plastic grocery shopping bag of garbage a week. Recycling helps of course, but it's still not very effecient. Plastics have their place, but we use way too much. Kids are conditioned to this in school. When I played football, we all drank water out of the same big jug, and I'm still alive! Now everyone has to have their own little individual plastic water bottle containers. We think that we are so damned sterile! I could go on and on. Sorry, I'll stop.

[Lopaka]

There was a good (bad) show on the Ocean Network here in Hawaii a while back. Lady had collected all sorts of crap from the NW islands and spread them out to categorize.

And yes, it was almost all Asian stuff if I recall correctly.

Really sad, they showed the contents of dead baby birds. Full of plastic toys, etc. and starve to death.

[scubadrewvideo]

Drew,

What is the mission of the voyage? I understand that you are making a documentary.

Does the voyage have another mission besides showing the horror of the trash?

I am waiting for the detailed outline of the objective and goals etc. I will determine all the options regarding documentary concepts once I know the details.
For now I am focusing on my game plan for funding sources to make this whole thing possible....and the first step is networking my contacts to further increase awareness.

Mahalo and I will keep updating as it goes.
Drew

[scubadrewvideo]

Looks like the 4 week, 2nd leg of the voyage, going NW of Hawaii to the international dateline and back, is tenatively scheduled for mid-July departure from Honolulu.

[Black_3000psi]

wow i m almost at a loss for words. i had always skipped over that thread but thought id take a look at it finally. the solution is simple. clean it up. but true to our governments natrual demeanor it keeps us looking at anything else hoping that this will go away. you would think it would have long ago gotten the "Exxon Valdez" treatment. ok so where does the money come from? they will say delaying the cleanup for another ten years hoping some nonprofit group takes it on. sorry but isnt that what the epa and the super fund is supposed to take care of? well if that wont do it we can always freeze a few shuttle missions and use the nasa funds. no need sending probs to mars when we got all this ocean to explore, but it wont last if we dont take care of it.then it will take three years of fighting to see who gets that fat contract. well if you ask me you take them guys sitting in them nice comfy cells the feds give um and put um to work out there . simple. free labor. convicts. and for the underwater cleanup well i know all the dive professions here on the board will be out there doing there part. see not so hard the find a solution. now heres the hard part getting enough people to put their money where their mouth is and make it happpen. i saw something about a fund raiser thats funny cause i could have sworn thats why we pay taxes . well thats why you all pay taxes. things like this happen and will continue to happen because people are too busy to make the people they elect deal with the problem . we too busy worrying about why hawaii lost the pro bowl. or why so and so got the boot from american idol.

drew im interested in getting involved but only if something concrete is going to be done.

[scubadrewvideo]

Clean up options wont even begin until the rest of the world yells "Clean it up!"...so lets get the rest of the world involved...sounds like a concrete idea to me.