Great Pacific Garbage Patch: Fact of Fiction?

Go to a sailing forum and search, its real.

true
Curtis Ebbesmeyer
[link to beachcombersalert.org]

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Great Pacific Garbage Patch
[link to en.wikipedia.org]

there is also one in the atlantic


forgot his book - Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science

listen to his interview on c2c

Last Edited by Deplorable Princess on 04/16/2011 02:59 PM

None of these links have photos of the massive concentration. I understand that stuff washes up on shore. But where are the photos of the massive trash island that is supposedly 2x the size of Texas?

Just because something is in the Wiki does not make it true.

I heard about it, I heard it was the size of Texas. That would be pretty big. Where does all that plastic come from?

[link to www.ask.com]

I've wondered the same, OP. With rogue waves, tsunamis, and hurricanes stiring up the oceanic surface, how is it possilble this garbage patch stays intact? I've wondered the same, OP.

You know the media likes to exaggerate things, maybe the picture they've built in your head doesn't fit with reality.

I believe there are huge concentrations of plastics out there though.

container falling off of container ships ie nike sneakers - peoples garbage - we live on the great south bay on long island and you would not believe what washes up -

....from all over the globe, it follows the ocean currents(over long periods of time, sometimes years), which eventually, when it comes to the Pacific Ocean at least, all end up in the North Pacific Gyer...

Sure there is trash out there...but to the scale of the GPC? I'm going to need an arial photo or two. Wreaks of Global Warming BS

We can surround the earth with satellites but cannot clean up a huge pile of trash? Really?

soo its true it sine exactly what it's called its actually like "a chunky soup" most of the garbage is plastic that breaks down very small and is translucent. However, if you were to get a nylon net and put it in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean in the specific spots the net will come out full of trash. 80% of this garbage comes from shore but some of it is also dumped from boats and the garbage you throw out. It is the worlds largest landfill.

heres some links for pictures:

[link to www.google.ca]

[link to www.google.ca]

Well how do you expect us to clean up tiny pieces of plastic that are barely visible. Its easier said than done the pieces of plastic are smaller than an eraser at the back of a pencil if you can find a net that has no holes then you can get the plastic but you will also be getting many fish and killing them. Also, it is 2 time the size of texas it is nearly impossible to clean it all up and its not worth it because if we dont stop leaving garbage around it will just keep going back into our oceans and the cost of sending out boats and emmitting all that gas is just going to destroy the planet anyways.

theres actually 5 garbage patches recorded but there is thought to be more

Those are called Gyres - any large system of rotating ocean currents, caused by the Coriolis effect.

It would be nice to convert some of those un-used tankers into floating factories with a scoop on the front, and some type of processing center (solar furnace?) in the holds.

Does everyone know how much of the oceans are un-explored?


I wish we could make building blocks out of debris that fit together like LEGO blocks, but with plumbing piping and electrical conduits built-in!

Always appreciate critical thinking OP.

I'm on the same page - seen lots of close-up photos but nothing that really shows the scale. And you'd think that if there was one it would be broadcast everywhere.

What would do it for me is a satellite or aerial shot.

Considering a member of one of the most powerful families in the world is involved in documenting this, you'd think they'd be able to afford to take some.

But also considering a member of one of the most powerful families in the world is involved in this makes me just a wee bit suspicious of the whole thing too.

Not to say there isn't an awful lot of crap in all the oceans - there is! - but I'd like to see more photographic proof of this alleged island too that gives a real scale.

The term, "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" conjures images of floating trash, easily visible -- lots of bags and cans and bottles floating around. So, naturally, people think that it can be photographed.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Instead, the "garbage" is small particulate matter floating just beneath the surface. It is the result of large, visible garbage disintegrating into smaller and smaller pieces. Some of the more graphic accounts of dangers to wildlife involve animals swallowing whole bottle caps and other debris, which is not able to be processed and pass through the digestive system, and the animal dies some gruesome death because it cannot keep enough food in its stomach.

Those stories are not to be discounted, but the real issue is the (often toxic) plastics getting into the bloodstream of marine animals and eventually working its way back up the food stream to the food we eat (fish).

I applaud your curiosity and determination to "get to the bottom" of the pacific garbage patch issue, but in controversial issues, clear evidence seldom comes in the form of a photograph.