Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Uhh - Chris Jordan is an artist known for making works with garbage as a commentary on consumerism. You can accept his "expert" opinion or you can accept the verifiable fact that Midway Atoll is located 1000 odd miles West of the so-called Pacific Garbage Patch. We are expected to believe that the gyre creates a 'vortex' that collects and traps garbage between Hawaii and N America, which may be true - so it is unlikely that garbage then travels out of that garbage patch and 1000 miles against the prevailing current to arrive at Midway. There's garbage in all the oceans, and it washes up on shorelines around the world. It's a tragedy that we should all be concerned about, but it doesn't help the cause to spread mistruth and hyperbole.

Uhhh......You have totally missed the point, this is not about Mr Jordan but about what the Albatrosses do, there is NO mention of garbage washing up on the beach at Midway (and i do know where Midway is thanks)......

I will give you a clue.....

Albatrosses have wings, what are they famed for using these wings for.....?

[Dsanduril]

Something like 80% of the Laysan albatross population nests on Midway, with another 19% on Laysan Island. On Midway that means close to one million birds at hatching time. The Laysan albatross ranges from Baja to Japan and north to the Bering Sea. And yet all of them return to Midway or Laysan to breed and birth. That range and flight path pretty much covers the entire Gyre. So, just because Midway is not in the Gyre doesn't mean that albatrosses found there didn't ingest plastic in the Gyre before heading to Midway.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by IslandHopper

Uhhh......You have totally missed the point, this is not about Mr Jordan but about what the Albatrosses do, there is NO mention of garbage washing up on the beach at Midway (and i do know where Midway is thanks)......

I will give you a clue.....

Albatrosses have wings, what are they famed for using these wings for.....?

Let me clue you in. The dead albatrosses are chicks - their parents fed them as they never left Midway. You can bet the parents didn't fly a thousand miles to find food for their nestlings.

[DeepFrz]

Of course garbage washes up on Midway Island. As I said in an earlier post approx. 55 tons of Ghost Nets wash up there every year. If you had watched some of the other videos on that site you would see that plastic washes up on the beach with every wave.

Posted by Lodesman: You can accept his "expert" opinion or you can accept the verifiable fact that Midway Atoll is located 1000 odd miles West of the so-called Pacific Garbage Patch.

Check this NOAA link and you will see a link to "Where are the Garbage Patches?".

http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html

Chris Jordan also explains in great detail what they can and can not do when taking photos of the dead birds. It is very clear that they do not mess with the trash in the dead birds. They can only clear away something that is in the way of a clear picture. The trash is not disturbed at all.

Posted by Lodesman: The "garbage patch" is supposed to lie between 135 and 155ºW - Midway is at 177ºW (hence the name). Don't let facts get the way of a good rant

Wrong, the garbage is concentrated in the Pacific Gyre and other Gyres around the world but it spreads all over the world. Midway is right in the middle of the Pacific Gyre.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

Wrong, the garbage is concentrated in the Pacific Gyre and other Gyres around the world but it spreads all over the world. Midway is right in the middle of the Pacific Gyre.

Before you make such loud statements, you should click on the link you post, and maybe look under the heading "where are the garbage patches"

[David_Old_Jersey]

Originally Posted by micah719

Saylur, you have expressed a fundamental truth that inded does affect us all.

Oh the irony .

[DeepFrz]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

Before you make such loud statements, you should click on the link you post, and maybe look under the heading "where are the garbage patches"

I have read it several times. Don't just look at the pictures, read the text.

Quote from the NOAA site.

Are the Pacific “garbage patches” the only areas where marine debris concentrates?

The “patches” are not the only open ocean areas where marine debris is concentrated. Another important area is the North Pacific is the Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ). This area, located north of the Hawaiian archipelago, has a high abundance of marine life, is a known area of marine debris concentration, and is one of the mechanisms for accumulation of debris in the Hawaiian Islands (Pichel et al., 2007).

Oceanographic features similar to the North Pacific Subtropical High and STCZ exist in other oceans of the world. Little research to date has been conducted on marine debris in these areas. Because of this no one can say for sure how large these areas are, especially since they move and change, sometimes daily, and no accurate estimate exists of how much debris is out there.

Regardless of the exact size, mass, and location of these areas of concentration, man-made litter and debris do not belong in our oceans or waterways.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by DeepFrz

I have read it several times. Don't just look at the pictures, read the text.

Perhaps you should read it again.

What is the difference between the "gyre" and the “garbage patches”? Or are they the same thing?
A gyre is a large-scale circular feature made up of ocean currents that spiral around a central point, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Worldwide, there are five major subtropical oceanic gyres: the North and South Pacific Subtropical Gyres, the North and South Atlantic Subtropical Gyres, and the Indian Ocean Subtropical Gyre. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is the one most notable because of its tendency to collect debris. It is made up of four large, clockwise-rotating currents – North Pacific, California, North Equatorial, and Kuroshio. It is very difficult to measure the exact size of a gyre because it is a fluid system, but the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is roughly estimated to be approximately 7 to 9 million square miles—not a small area! This, of course, is a ballpark estimate. This is equivalent to approximately three times the area of the continental United States (3 million square miles).
While a gyre may aggregate debris on a very large scale, debris patches, as seen by those sailing the North Pacific, are actually the result of various smaller-scale oceanographic features such as oceanic eddies and frontal meanders (think of meanders as the deviation from a straight line. As energy (wind/currents) hit the front there are undulations and "curvature" which are described as frontal meanders (movements to the north and south along the front)).

If you have read it, then you will see 'Eastern Garbage Patch' is THE Garbage Patch that is being discussed, aka 'The Great Pacific Garbage Patch' - and there is empirical evidence that it exists. There is the possibility that there is a 'Western Garbage Patch', but more research is needed to confirm if it exists. There are places other than the 'patches' where debris is known or thought to accumulate, including the STCZ - this is an area distinct from the GPGP. This is entirely in keeping with what I've stated previously - there is garbage in all the world's oceans and it washes up on all its shorelines - it does not all come from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

[nagrom snoyl]

deepfrz i know these guys in the video that you posted re; ghost nets mean well but they talk about miles of these nets being laid and discarded when the net they are pulling into the boat is the cod end of a trawl and is net that is towed behind a boat and not set like gill nets which is what they are confusing it with and yet again makes fishermen out to be the bad guys.... anything lost from fishing boats at sea is normally not by choice the gear they use is way to expensive to lose in the first place

[MarkJ]

Hmmmm, ok here is a weird one.
A camera lost in 2007 on an Hawaiian scuba dive has washed up in Taiwan!

And the memory card is still readable!

And the photos were able to identify the owner!

But shouldn't it still be floating in the great pacific puddle?

Five years, 9600km later, tourist's underwater camera found

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Hmmmm, ok here is a weird one.
A camera lost in 2007 on an Hawaiian scuba dive has washed up in Taiwan!

And the memory card is still readable!

And the photos were able to identify the owner!

But shouldn't it still be floating in the great pacific puddle?

Five years, 9600km later, tourist's underwater camera found

Mark

The North Equatorial current could carry it there.

[tbodine88]

And now there's this:
Marine Debris Gyre Expedition Sets Sail | Environment News Service

[mr-canada]

As far as I understand the "Great Garbage Patch" in the Pacific is 98% tiny bits of debris floating between the surface and 5-10 feet underwater, a lot of it is microscopic bits of plastic which as stated by a previous poster are largely soft plastics like shopping bags degraded by UV rays on the open water. There are apparently larger chunks of debris but these can be moved around by wind so they are not as collected in the "area twice the size of Texas" as the underwater fragments.

The ecological hazard presented by the garbage patch is mostly for aquatic species that feed on plankton under the surface of the water, it gums up in their gills and prevents them from properly breathing as it collects with ever more density.

Those looking for a visual of a garbage dump of floating debris the size of Texas are going to have a very hard time finding such a visual. Chunks of foam and things floating on the surface are pushed by wind currents and storms while the undersea fragments are apparently caught in the Gyre. The waves will move them up and down but they largely stay in the same spot.

I am no expert and this is just from what I've read and learned about the patch and I have never been there so what I am seeing and saying is mostly second hand. I have seen a National Geographic special on the garbage patch, and watched them troll a small net and gather 1 cubic metre of crap in about five minutes but it was all small stuff under the water, floating bits of plastic bags etc between a mm and 6-8 cm.

[DeepFrz]

Here is an interesting video of some people who are trying to make a difference. The problem is horrendous. The number of cigarette lighters really blew me away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFS0...#t=1178.606019

[DeepFrz]

Another good link.
Sarah Wilson | 8 bits of plastic you can quit right now - Sarah Wilson

deepfrz i know these guys in the video that you posted re; ghost nets mean well but they talk about miles of these nets being laid and discarded when the net they are pulling into the boat is the cod end of a trawl and is net that is towed behind a boat and not set like gill nets which is what they are confusing it with and yet again makes fishermen out to be the bad guys.... anything lost from fishing boats at sea is normally not by choice the gear they use is way to expensive to lose in the first place

Of course the fishers don't lose nets on purpose but they do lose their nets, and the nets keep right on fishing.