Ocean // Current

Oceans’ Uptake of Human-Made Carbon May Be Slowing

The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the... more

Simon_Ruymaekers
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Jump in coal use pushes emissions to all-time high

"With the faltering climate change talks set to open in Copenhagen next month, the... more

JacquesHalle
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SOS: Save Our Seabirds From Commercial Fishing Boats

Many conservationists have been talking about how commercial fishing practices have... more

bethbot
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United State News Media and Democracy (IRFA)

To, United State News Media and Democracy SECRETARY CLINTON, US Senator and House... more

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6 days ago
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Getting it right: Mass. draft ocean management plan

On December 31, Massachusetts will become the first state with a management plan for... more

NankinYP
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10 days ago
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What promising new communication experiments have you seen?

I think it's kind of sad that it takes people, or organizations, to donate their money... more

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Afloat in the Ocean, Expanding Islands of Trash

1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement.

Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas. But one research organization estimates that the garbage now actually pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in what oceanographers call a gyre like this one — an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.

Scientists say the garbage patch is just one of five that may be caught in giant gyres scattered around the world’s oceans. Abandoned fishing gear like buoys, fishing line and nets account for some of the waste, but other items come from land after washing into storm drains and out to sea.

Plastic is the most common refuse in the patch because it is lightweight, durable and an omnipresent, disposable product in both advanced and developing societies. It can float along for hundreds of miles before being caught in a gyre and then, over time, breaking down.

But once it does split into pieces, the fragments look like confetti in the water. Millions, billions, trillions and more of these particles are floating in the world’s trash-filled gyres.

PCBs, DDT and other toxic chemicals cannot dissolve in water, but the plastic absorbs them like a sponge. Fish that feed on plankton ingest the tiny plastic particles. Scientists from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation say that fish tissues contain some of the same chemicals as the plastic. The scientists speculate that toxic chemicals are leaching into fish tissue from the plastic they eat.

The researchers say that when a predator — a larger fish or a person — eats the fish that eats the plastic, that predator may be transferring toxins to its own tissues, and in greater concentrations since toxins from multiple food sources can accumulate in the body.

Charles Moore found the Pacific garbage patch by accident 12 years ago, when he came upon it on his way back from a sailing race in Hawaii. As captain, Mr. Moore ferried three researchers, his first mate and a journalist here this summer in his 10th scientific trip to the site. He is convinced that several similar garbage patches remain to be discovered.

“Anywhere you really look for it, you’re going to see it,” he said.

Many scientists believe there is a garbage patch off the coast of Japan and another in the Sargasso Sea, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean,... more