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Tracking Ocean Trash by Satellite
DoubleWhopper writes "From the "Intersting Use of Technology" file comes this article on NOAA's tracking of oceanic debris with satellites used for tracking fish. From the article, "...during three days of study, about 2,000 individual pieces of debris were seen", and, "A number were balls of net up to 30 feet across." The researchers verified the information with the aid of a NOAA aircraft and digital imaging."
Truly depressing.
Yay to fucking up the planet!
I wonder if they spotted Wilson? Enquiring castaways want to know....
Nobodies Prefect
Tidbits for Techs Technology Blog
FTA: "'One piece of driftnet that was still stretched out, and presumably still fishing, was 200-300 meters (650-975 feet) long,' Churnside said."
The article links to a NOAA article, "Ghost Fishing."
This is similar to the "ghost traps" crab trapproblem. Crabs enter abandoned crab traps. The crabs die. More crabs enter the traps to feed on the dead ones, then they die. An endless cycle.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department has an annual Crab Trap Cleanup Day. Notices are sent out, and any crab traps still in the water during the cleanup day(s) are considered abandoned. Volunteers annually collect somewhere around 2000 traps from Texas coastal waters.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
With this tracking technology, now someone could go out and pick this stuff up. Greenpeace could use their Zodiacs for something besides chasing whalers. Seriously, this could lead to a potentially profitable salvage operation.
"Lack of technical competence coupled with the arrogance of power, as usual, leads to no good end."
NORAD tracks spacejunk that is in orbit around earth, simiarly to what NOAA is doing with ocean junk.
Why don't they send some crews to clean it up or notify the respective countries responsible for it to do that. I find it unnerving how much pollution there is in the form of litter, toxins in the air, land and sea and yet most of those responsible are completely apathetic because it is more monetarily efficient.
shop.envescent.com - Computer hardware and more.
lets pressure the gov to clean it up
---- Put Sig here:
That's a nice, tasty crab Katamari. A most delicious Katamari. But can you make it bigger?
"The great thing about multitasking is that several things can go wrong at once." -me
"The only other "anaimals" that eat the crabs are other crabs and small fishes, because (a) only other ceabs can enter the small openings in the traps, and (b) othe crabs have the hardware for breaking into the trapped cran's shells."
One of the crabs main predators is the highly intelligent octopus. Octopus are the bane of the cray/crab-pot fishermen because: (a) They have no bones and can chase a crab anywhere it goes. (b) With eight arms and a beak like a parrot they can literally rip a crab/crayfish to bits in seconds. The pots also allow the octopus to remaining somewhat protected from bigger fish, since the flying crab meat tends to actract thier attention.
BTW: I strongly agree that to clean up this shamefull mess is a usefull way to spend money. I live by the beach, there is a bin every 100mtrs but the council still "rakes" the tourist crud off with a tractor every day.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Somebody put spellcheck in firefox, quick.
(...There is hope for you yet, editor^W padawan.)
Having seen first-hand the crappy conditions out oceans are in after several years in the Navy I think this is a good thing. It is also a good thing because navigational hazards such as trash create all sorts of problems. Perhaps by tracking the trash they can eventually find who dumped it there.
I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
I am not saying the crab-pot clean-up is a waste of time, I think the abandoned pot rule is a great idea and more power to them. For practically nothing you get some rubbish out of the sea, some re-usable pots and may even give a little boost to the crabs population.
...and since they are Texan Octopi, I imagine they would be so big they would simply rip the pot apart. :)
In Australia we have a national clean-up day once a year. Thousands of people all over the country volunteer to spend a Sunday helping clean-up thier local area. Local bussinesses donate trucks, cranes, etc. The various govt's chip in with advertising dollars and such. It does not matter if your thing is cleaning up lost crab-pots or dragging car bodies out of creeks it all helps.
What I am saying is that the pots do not become a problem for anything except crabs and the occasional small turtle. Things like nets, plastic bags, fishing line, etc are far more of a problem since they kill creatures as diverse as seahorses, seagulls and sealions.
No octopus in Texas - This "Guide to Shelf Invertebrates, Gulf of Mexico" lists seven species of octopus and squid?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.