Great Pacific garbage patch

[thruska]

Originally Posted by rebelreck

Please excuse My ignorance. But where does all this trash come from? I know a lot of folks do not care, and dump their trash. But it has to be a whole sale issue!!

In the eighties, I worked in a Manitowoc Shipbuilding Shipyard . While working on Sealand container ships , the yard won a bid contract on two articulate garbage scows for the city of Chicago. IIRC the length was around 250ft. These were clamshell type dumpers. They would float while dumping as they were watertight buoyant. One of the barges didn't make it , as it broke loose on delivery and hit a bridge, apparently breaking its back. That didn't stop the parade of refuse.Chicago was dumping garbage in the fresh water of Lake Michigan for many years, imagine a fleet of garbage barges for decades.
I know farms along Lake Michigan dumped all manner of refuse over the banks, including dead animals.
On a visit to friends in Bodega Bay Area, Fort Bragg NorCal. I was told of stories of river dumping ,which ended up in the Pacific, and in Mendocino of pushing trash over the cliffs into the Pacific.If your familiar with Mendo it's fairly easy to do.
Any New Yorkers have and interesting data on the tons of garbage that went out to sea ?
In the past any large cities near bodies of water intentionally dumped garbage in the same bodies of water they were getting their drinking water from. What the hell were they thinking?

[jackdale]

I have been through the Pacific gyre 4 times. Most recently in August.


A fair number of floats, plastic bottles, etc.. The killer trash is bits of fishing net right below the surface. Took out a transmission on one piece as we were powering through the High.

In 2012 we did encounter tsunami debris, the worst being a piece of floating concrete dock.

[TOPGALLANT32]

I for what its worth saw one huge island of plasric trash coming back from Hi.
Not as big as the state of Texas but it was pretty impressive. heaped up as much as 4 ft over several acres area.
Have see so much floating plastic in the Pacific it is sickening.

[Meacenas]

For the sake of convenience and for logic, minus the science paperwork, Its easy to say that the garbage is not there or to minimize it to the point of almost nonexistence.
Consider that the whole world has been and still is using the oceans as a dumping ground. This has been going on for at least a couple hundred years of industrial growth.
Lets say there are places in the ocean where this 'stuff' accumulates due to currents and perhaps even wind. You might sail right through a high density of various particles that are yesterdays garbage and not even know it because you cannot see it.
Plastic takes a long time to degrade, yet you see it everywhere on land in the form of bags, containers, foams, its so prevalent you hardly even notice it Guess where all that degrading plastic washes to? Right down the drain and into the lakes, rivers and .....
Right now we have a problem with microbeads of plastic from consumer cosmetics not being filtered out of our waste water and thats only one tiny segment......

[donradcliffe]

Here is a few pictures of the Pacific Gyre in 2011--see for yourself. Note the water clarity. Also note the effect of the Pacific Gyre plastic on the crew.

[AquaGeo]

Right...

Lets not worry about using science or evidence based logic, that pesky stuff often disagrees with my own logic which is probably correct because I've decided it is.

Lets just 'say' this stuff is true, no need for evidence, that's science which is bad because science created plastic in the first place!

Lets also ignore landfill and treatment facilities and just make broad sweeping populist statements.

The question is, do the ends justify the means, are you happy being lied too about things like the Pacific Garbage Patch in order to scare people into better garbage disposal practices? I'm not, same as I don't like separating my recycling when I know my district does not actually recycle any of the waste but just processes the lot into landfill (not the case everywhere BTW).

The Truth shall set you free! Don't like it, don't buy it or use it, vote with your wallet.

[hpeer]

Sperm Whales Found Dead In Germany, Stomachs FULL Of Plastic And Car Parts - Expand your Consciousness

Twenty-nine sperm whales were found stranded on shores around the North Sea, an area that is too shallow for the marine wildlife. Only recently were details of the animals’ necropsy released. However, scientists were deeply disturbed by what they found in the animals’ stomachs.

According to a press release from Wadden Sea National Park in Schleswig-Holstein, many of the whales had stomachs FULL of plastic debris, including a 13-meter-long fishing net, a 70 cm piece of plastic from a car and other pieces of plastic litter.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Sperm Whales Found Dead In Germany, Stomachs FULL Of Plastic And Car Parts - Expand your Consciousness

Unfortuantely, that blog is full of typical activist hyperbole and distortion.
The reality is bad enough. (I see it is actually a repost from a site titled "True Activist" )

That sort of distorted/emotive reporting does not help.

The press release the activist articel refers to is much more objective and well worth reading. It's in German, but Google translate does a good job on that one.

TinyURL link to the appropriate Google Translation (Preview mode for safety): TinyURL.com - shorten that long URL into a tiny URL

While plastic waste in the oceans is very concerning and we should all be working to eliminate it, the hyperbole and distortion that that blogger is guilty of does not help the cause. Maybe the author should find out the true meaning of the word "travesty" which she appears so fond of.

[quill]

"FLOTSAMETRICS"

[quill]

FLOTSAMETRICS, Intersting book

[Nikolina]

According to an recent article on fox news (science) it's 1.3 million square miles and 386,000 at its core, surely you must have seen it!

[AquaGeo]

Originally Posted by Nikolina

According to an recent article on fox news (science) it's 1.3 million square miles and 386,000 at its core, surely you must have seen it!

Hahaha nice Fox News 'Science'...

I see what you did there!

[Juho]

I don't know what info you can trust these days, but National Geographic might be a bit more reliable than many others. (Sperm Whales Found Full of Car Parts and Plastics)

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Juho

I don't know what info you can trust these days, but National Geographic might be a bit more reliable than many others. (Sperm Whales Found Full of Car Parts and Plastics)

Ye[, that's a lot closer to the translation of the original german press release.

[hpeer]

Stu,
I didn't see a lot difference, but maybe I'm practiced at scanning and skipping over the hyperbole.

Yet the facts of the case, whales injesting our debris, are nothing for humanity to be proud of.