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

[scubadrewvideo]

Well again I am glad this thread continues.
Ian Connacher's film "Addicted to Plastic" is a great piece of work. He was also fortunate enough to see the "Garbage Patch" himself. I hope to continue what he has started by covering the more specific element of the ocean research. We hope to return with undeniable evidence that plastic is in our fish.
Less than 2 months until we depart...still a lot of prep to do.
I have been discussing the plan for video documentation of this upcoming voyage in June, with Joel Paschal, who is also crew on this gyre trip. Joel sailed the Junk boat made from plastic bottles from LA to Hawaii last year to raise awareness of the problem.
Thanks again for keeping this discussion going!

[Shaka Doug]

Hey Drew, is there any info about Joels boat or the trip he made?

I made a dive yesterday at Five Caves (one of my favorite shore dives) and I found the typical large pile of fishing debris. I was particularly bothered by two items I found though. It seems as though some idiot thought it would be a good idea to use "D" cell batteries as weights. They taped two and three together with plastic electrical tape and attached their lines and hooks. I found them tangled on the reef and the batteries were already decaying and leaking chemicals. Couldn't have been out there more than a day or two. It really ticked me off to see that. It shows the mentality of the people we are dealing with. How the hell does someone think that is a good idea for a fishing weight??? This is not gonna be easy my friend!!

[scubadrewvideo]

This is the blog site for the Junk voyage.
JUNK
Joel, Myself and Heidi Taylor from Tangaroa Blue went to Kahuku today and sampled a segment of beach, finding large quantities of raw plastic "Knurdles" in the high tide line. That is the raw plastic pellets used for all plastic manufacturing.
We were wondering if there are any raw plastic manufacturing businesses are located on Hawaii. Companies that produce or receive the plastic "knurdles".

...and yeah, I don't get that battery thing. It will be hard if we have to change from the bottom up...this needs to be from top down!

[RonFrank]

Ironically, this issue has been around for a long time. I think my Cuz made me aware of it in the early 2000's. I don't think much has been done over time.

[ScubaSteve]

Ironically, this issue has been around for a long time. I think my Cuz made me aware of it in the early 2000's. I don't think much has been done over time.

I for one hope that that trend is changing and that we will start to see more and more action on it. In fact, I believe that some positive things have happened at least within my circle: bottled water has almost been abolished, packaging friendly methods are trying to be adopted (and that includes not buying things IF there is a ridiculous amount of packaging), using our own purchased bags for groceries over and over, to name just a few. I know that this is not even a fleck of fly-**** in the grand scheme of things, but hopefully those that learn about the issue and care about the environment and leaving this world in good shape for our children and grandchildren, will change their habits. Every little bit helps and eventually we wil hopefully be at a point where the growth may be stunted. Then (if not before), people can develop a way of removing all of the plastic that is already in the water. To me, I do not care about the size, I care about the problem. I for one was part of the problem so I am not on a high horse or anything. I just realize there is an issue that needs the entire world's action to truly fix it. Hopefully everybody can get their head back out in the open air long enough to help solve the problem irrespective of size.

[jake32010]

its sad what we do to the earth

[Plumb bob]

its sad what we do to the earth

Yeah but don't dwell on that as it tends to lead to feelings of futility.. We can still get the @%#$ out there and make a difference right?

[ScubaSteve]

Yeah but don't dwell on that as it tends to lead to feelings of futility.. We can still get the @%#$ out there and make a difference right?

Yes we can. And, as I mentioned, what each of us does may be a fleck of fly **** in the pile, but what we all do collectively to help the problem can amount to a LOT of help. And the more each does, the better off we are in the long run.

Maybe we can turn this ship around yet.

[Peter_C]

I will often take the time to "Preach" to my friends and fellow man kind about the evils of plastic, and have chosen plastic grocery bags as the main topic. So far I know at least 7 people who have converted to using cloth grocery bags after having explained the reasoning behind it. Hopefully a pyramid scheme follows.

Benefits of using cloth bags:
They do not break when loaded heavy!
Easier to carry.
The cloth bags stand up better in the car.
You save money by getting around $.06 refund per bag every time you use them.
Better for the environment.
Reusable bags ARE a statement, saying I care about the environment.
YOU can help change the world we live in.

[Shaka Doug]

That's a great post Peter!! I"ve been doing the same. The cashier at Long's in Kihei must have thanked me at least 7 separate times yesterday for bringing my own bags. It created a short but effective conversation in line with the other patrons about the ocean/plastic connection and now three more people are aware of the problem and know of at least one solution they can actually do themselves.

Awesome!