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Giant Trap Is Deployed To Catch Plastic Littering the Pacific Ocean (nytimes.com)
A nonprofit has deployed a multimillion-dollar floating boom designed to corral plastic debris littering the Pacific Ocean (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). The 2,000-foot-long structure left San Francisco Bay on Saturday. According to The New York Times, Ocean Cleanup "aims to trap up to 150,000 pounds of plastic during the boom's first year at sea." From the report: Within five years, with the creation of dozens more booms, the organization hopes to clean half of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Over the next several days, the boom will be towed to a site where it will undergo two weeks of testing. If everything goes as planned, the boom will then be brought to the garbage patch, nearly 1,400 miles offshore, where it is expected to arrive by mid-October, said Boyan Slat, 24, the Dutch inventor and entrepreneur who founded Ocean Cleanup.
The cleanup system is supposed to work like this: After the boom detaches from the towing vessel, the current is expected to pull it into the shape of a "U." As it drifts along, propelled by the wind and waves, it should trap plastic "like Pac-Man," the foundation said on its website. The captured plastic would then be transported back to land, sorted and recycled. The boom has an impenetrable skirt that hangs nearly 10 feet below to catch smaller pieces of plastic. The nonprofit said marine life would be able to pass underneath.
The cleanup system is supposed to work like this: After the boom detaches from the towing vessel, the current is expected to pull it into the shape of a "U." As it drifts along, propelled by the wind and waves, it should trap plastic "like Pac-Man," the foundation said on its website. The captured plastic would then be transported back to land, sorted and recycled. The boom has an impenetrable skirt that hangs nearly 10 feet below to catch smaller pieces of plastic. The nonprofit said marine life would be able to pass underneath.
People For The Ethical Treatment Of Giants will start a protest campaign.
Most of the plastic in the ocean comes from a handful of rivers. Put the giant trap in the mouths of those rivers, and you'll catch a lot more.
Yet the plastic shaming is aimed at the US and Europe.
Its like looking under a streetlamp for your lost keys when you know you didn't lose them there, but hey, the light's better.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
but with 5 billion new pounds of plastic ending up in the Pacific every year, they're gonna need a whole lot more booms.
It will be a booming business.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
It's the second largest state (only Alaska is bigger)
And if Texas doesn't stop bragging about how big it is, Alaska is going to divide itself in two and thus make Texas into the 3rd biggest state instead of the 2nd.