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Expedition To Explore an Alaska-Sized Plastic "Island"

Posted by kdawson on from the one-hundred-megatons dept.

Peace Corps Online writes "An expedition called Project Kaisei has departed bound for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — a huge 'island' of plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean estimated to be the size of Alaska (some estimates place it at ten times that size). The expedition will study the impact of the waste on marine life, and research methods to clean up the vast human-created mess in the Pacific. The BBC quotes Ryan Yerkey, the project's chief of operations: 'Every piece of trash that is left on a beach or ends up in our rivers or estuaries and washes out to the sea is an addition to the problem, so we need people to be the solution.' The garbage patch occupies a large and relatively stationary region of the North Pacific Ocean bound by the North Pacific Gyre, a remote area commonly referred to as the horse latitudes. The rotational pattern created by the North Pacific Gyre draws in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean, including the coastal waters off North America and Japan. As material is captured in the currents, wind-driven surface currents gradually move floating debris toward the center, trapping it in the region. 'You are talking about quite a bit of marine debris but it's not a solid mass,' says Yerkey. 'Twenty years from now we can't be harvesting the ocean for trash. We need to get it out but we need to also have people make those changes in their lives to stop the problem from growing and hopefully reverse the course.'"

4 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. The size of Alaska or bigger and no images? by DigitalReverend · · Score: 0, Troll

    I have looked through all the links. If this "island" is that big, it should be easy to get satellite images.

    Anyone care to provide them?

    --
    I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
  2. How about from a boat? by DigitalReverend · · Score: 1, Troll

    My God, I said I read the articles and I cannot find ONE image. Not even from a dude on a canoe floating past. Someone has to have taken a picture of this somehow. And i find it hard to believe that the infrared signature of that section of ocean matches the unpolluted sections. There has to be some way to come up with some kind of image to prove that it's there.

    --
    I read Slashdot for the headlines, because the headlines, unlike the articles, are usually original and never duplicated
    1. Re:How about from a boat? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 0, Troll

      The Invisible Trash Island was put there by Gaia the Earth Goddess to test your faith. I know it is hard to do, but you must learn to believe in it. We will now all recite the Holy Jurassic Temperature Reconstruction on Page 858-892 of Inconvenient Truth : The Book of our Saviour, Al Gore. When we are done, please throw some rotten vegetables at the unbelievers in the village pillory on your way back to your treadmills.

      March the 4th, 212 345 632 BC, 11:00 am Northern Pangaea 23.456 degrees Centigrade.
      March the 4th, 212 345 632 BC, 12:00 pm Northern Pangaea 25.652 degrees Centigrade.

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  3. Re:Wouldn't this make a good source of fossil fuel by shadowbearer · · Score: 0, Troll

    If a powerful minority of people continue to act selfishly, we will fail

      Fixed that fer ya ;)

    SB

    --
    It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.