tagged w/ Gyre
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Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a hard-fought victory to environmentalists and promising to change the way Angelenos do their grocery shopping.
The City Council voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic bags over the next 16 months at an estimated 7,500 stores, meaning shoppers will need to bring reusable bags or purchase paper bags for 10 cents each.
The ban came after years of campaigning by clean-water advocates who said it would reduce the amount of trash in landfills, the region's waterways and the ocean. They estimate Californians use 12 billion plastic bags a year and that less than 5% of the state's plastic bags are recycled.
Los Angeles becomes the latest in a string of California cities — including San Jose, San Francisco and Long Beach — to ban plastic bags.Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to approve a ban on plastic bags at... more
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Millions of tons of plastic are swirling in Earth's oceans, deteriorating and releasing poison into the water and air.
For detailed information about the magnitude of this problem, please read:
"Plastic Found in Nine Percent of 'Garbage Patch' Fishes: Tens of Thousands of
Tons of Debris Annually Ingested" (Science Daily, July 1, 2011)
Here is the text of that article:
"The first scientific results from an ambitious voyage led by a group of graduate
students from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego offer a
stark view of human pollution and its infiltration of an area of the ocean
that has been labeled as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
Two graduate students with the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic
Expedition, or SEAPLEX, found evidence of plastic waste in more than nine
percent of the stomachs of fish collected during their voyage to the North
Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Based on their evidence, authors Peter Davison and
Rebecca Asch estimate that fish in the intermediate ocean depths of the North
Pacific ingest plastic at a rate of roughly 12,000- to 24,000 tons per year.
Their results were published June 27 in the journal Marine Ecology Progress
Series.
During the SEAPLEX voyage in August 2009, a team of Scripps graduate students traveled more than 1,000 miles west of California to the eastern sector of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre aboard the Scripps research vessel New
Horizon. Over 20 days the students, New Horizon crew and expedition
volunteers conducted comprehensive and rigorous scientific sampling at
numerous locations. They collected fish specimens, water samples and marine
debris at depths ranging from the sea surface to thousands of feet depth.
Of the 141 fishes spanning 27 species dissected in the study, Davison and
Asch found that 9.2 percent of the stomach contents of mid-water fishes
contained plastic debris, primarily broken-down bits smaller than a human
fingernail. The researchers say the majority of the stomach plastic pieces
were so small their origin could not be determined.
"About nine percent of examined fishes contained plastic in their stomach.
That is an underestimate of the true ingestion rate because a fish may
regurgitate or pass a plastic item, or even die from eating it. We didn't
measure those rates, so our nine percent figure is too low by an unknown
amount," said Davison.
The authors say previous studies on fish and plastic ingestion may have
included so-called "net-feeding" biases. Net feeding can lead to artificially
high cases of plastic ingestion by fishes while they are confined in a net
with a high concentration of plastic debris. The Scripps study's results were
designed to avoid such bias. The highest concentrations of plastic were
retrieved by a surface collecting device called a "manta net," which sampled
for only 15 minutes at a time. The short sampling time minimizes the risk of
net feeding by preventing large concentrations of plastic from building up,
and also by reducing the amount of time that a captured fish spends in the
net. In addition to the manta net, the fishes were also collected with other
nets that sample deeper in the water column where there is less plastic to be
ingested through net feeding.
The new study focused on the prevalence of plastic ingestion, but effects
such as toxicological impacts on fish and composition of the plastic were
outside of the study's goals.
The majority of fish examined in the study were myctophids, commonly called
lanternfish because of their luminescent tissue. Lanternfishes are
hypothesized to use luminescence for several purposes, including
counter-illumination (thwarts predators attempting to silhouette the
lanternfish against sunlight), mate attraction and identification and
illumination of prey. Such fish generally inhabit the 200- to 1,000-meter
(650- to 3,280-foot) depth during the day and swim to the surface at night.
"These fish have an important role in the food chain because they connect
plankton at the base of the food chain with higher levels. We have estimated
the incidence at which plastic is entering the food chain and I think there
are potential impacts, but what those impacts are will take more research,"
said Asch.
Rather than a visible "patch" or "island" of trash, marine debris is highly
dispersed across thousands of miles of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.
The debris area cannot be mapped from air or space, so SEAPLEX researchers
collected samples in 132 net tows (130 of which contained plastic) across a
distance of more than 2,375 kilometers (1,700 miles) in an attempt to find
the boundaries of the patch. The region, a "convergence zone" where floating
debris in water congregates, is generally avoided by mariners due to its calm
winds and mild currents. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre has been
understudied by scientists, leaving many open questions about marine debris
in the area and its long-term effects on the marine environment.
"This study clearly emphasizes the importance of directly sampling in the
environment where the impacts may be occurring," said James Leichter, a
Scripps associate professor of biological oceanography who participated in
the SEAPLEX expedition but was not an author of the new paper. "We are seeing
that most of our prior predictions and expectations about potential impacts
have been based on speculation rather than evidence and in many cases we have
in fact underestimated the magnitude of effects. SEAPLEX also clearly
illustrates how relatively small amounts of funding directed for novel field
sampling and work in remote places can vastly increase our knowledge and
understanding of environmental problems."Millions of tons of plastic are swirling in Earth's oceans, deteriorating and... more
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ScienceDaily (July 1, 2011) — The first scientific results from an ambitious voyage led by a group of graduate students from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego offer a stark view of human pollution and its infiltration of an area of the ocean that has been labeled as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
Two graduate students with the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition, or SEAPLEX, found evidence of plastic waste in more than nine percent of the stomachs of fish collected during their voyage to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Based on their evidence, authors Peter Davison and Rebecca Asch estimate that fish in the intermediate ocean depths of the North Pacific ingest plastic at a rate of roughly 12,000- to 24,000 tons per year.
Their results were published June 27 in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.
During the SEAPLEX voyage in August 2009, a team of Scripps graduate students traveled more than 1,000 miles west of California to the eastern sector of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre aboard the Scripps research vessel New Horizon. Over 20 days the students, New Horizon crew and expedition volunteers conducted comprehensive and rigorous scientific sampling at numerous locations. They collected fish specimens, water samples and marine debris at depths ranging from the sea surface to thousands of feet depth.
Of the 141 fishes spanning 27 species dissected in the study, Davison and Asch found that 9.2 percent of the stomach contents of mid-water fishes contained plastic debris, primarily broken-down bits smaller than a human fingernail. The researchers say the majority of the stomach plastic pieces were so small their origin could not be determined.
"About nine percent of examined fishes contained plastic in their stomach. That is an underestimate of the true ingestion rate because a fish may regurgitate or pass a plastic item, or even die from eating it. We didn't measure those rates, so our nine percent figure is too low by an unknown amount," said Davison.
The authors say previous studies on fish and plastic ingestion may have included so-called "net-feeding" biases. Net feeding can lead to artificially high cases of plastic ingestion by fishes while they are confined in a net with a high concentration of plastic debris. The Scripps study's results were designed to avoid such bias. The highest concentrations of plastic were retrieved by a surface collecting device called a "manta net," which sampled for only 15 minutes at a time. The short sampling time minimizes the risk of net feeding by preventing large concentrations of plastic from building up, and also by reducing the amount of time that a captured fish spends in the net. In addition to the manta net, the fishes were also collected with other nets that sample deeper in the water column where there is less plastic to be ingested through net feeding.
The new study focused on the prevalence of plastic ingestion, but effects such as toxicological impacts on fish and composition of the plastic were outside of the study's goals.
The majority of fish examined in the study were myctophids, commonly called lanternfish because of their luminescent tissue. Lanternfishes are hypothesized to use luminescence for several purposes, including counter-illumination (thwarts predators attempting to silhouette the lanternfish against sunlight), mate attraction and identification and illumination of prey. Such fish generally inhabit the 200- to 1,000-meter (650- to 3,280-foot) depth during the day and swim to the surface at night.
"These fish have an important role in the food chain because they connect plankton at the base of the food chain with higher levels. We have estimated the incidence at which plastic is entering the food chain and I think there are potential impacts, but what those impacts are will take more research," said Asch.
Rather than a visible "patch" or "island" of trash, marine debris is highly dispersed across thousands of miles of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The debris area cannot be mapped from air or space, so SEAPLEX researchers collected samples in 132 net tows (130 of which contained plastic) across a distance of more than 2,375 kilometers (1,700 miles) in an attempt to find the boundaries of the patch. The region, a "convergence zone" where floating debris in water congregates, is generally avoided by mariners due to its calm winds and mild currents. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre has been understudied by scientists, leaving many open questions about marine debris in the area and its long-term effects on the marine environment.
"This study clearly emphasizes the importance of directly sampling in the environment where the impacts may be occurring," said James Leichter, a Scripps associate professor of biological oceanography who participated in the SEAPLEX expedition but was not an author of the new paper. "We are seeing that most of our prior predictions and expectations about potential impacts have been based on speculation rather than evidence and in many cases we have in fact underestimated the magnitude of effects. SEAPLEX also clearly illustrates how relatively small amounts of funding directed for novel field sampling and work in remote places can vastly increase our knowledge and understanding of environmental problems."
SEAPLEX was supported by the UC Ship Funds program, Project Kaisei/Ocean Voyages Institute and the National Science Foundation.ScienceDaily (July 1, 2011) — The first scientific results from an ambitious... more
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We returned to the scene of our September, 2010 plastic collection at Crescent Beach in Oregon (See "Plastic Beaches" on this YouTube channel) to find that the ocean has already restocked the beach with plastic of all shapes and sizes. This plastic kills birds and fish, so we also interviewed the director of the Wildlife Center of the North Coast, Sharnelle Fee, to get her thoughts about the threats marine pollution poses.We returned to the scene of our September, 2010 plastic collection at Crescent Beach... more
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Plastic is strangling our oceans and the life therein. Take a look at this brief but powerful video that chronicles how our "lifestyles" are killing marine life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McrJc5w5mhkPlastic is strangling our oceans and the life therein. Take a look at this brief but... more
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Here are links to parts one and two of "Plastic Beaches," an original video that documents a volunteer group's efforts to find, collect, measure, and analyze plastic debris that is washing ashore in Oregon and Washington. This debris, ingested by sea birds and other animals, contains toxins that kill.
MIcroscopic pieces of plastic are making their way into the food chain and threaten human health, as well. The spearhead group for this effort, Sea Turtles Forever, is trying very hard to raise awareness (and money) so that it can continue to work to save the oceans and the shorelines from this pervasive and insidious pollution.
The total length for the videos at these links is 19 minutes, so please take a few moments to watch, especially if you live near water. seaturtlesforever.org would greatly appreciate your interest. Thanks.
Part One:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZvTqDgk9d0
Part Two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNgu4OQpqecHere are links to parts one and two of "Plastic Beaches," an original video... more
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5gyres.org
panexplore.com
A research expedition has been conducted in the North Atlantic Ocean between the Caribbean, Bermuda, and the Azores.The expedition was headed by Dr. Marcus Eriksen of Algalita Marine Research, who has done extensive research on the North Pacific Gyre, and has sailed a raft made of plastic bottle from California to Hawaii. The crew members of the S/V Sea Dragon used a specially designed "Manta Trawl" to skim along the surface of the ocean to collect debris. During the transect, each trawl produced plastic fragments. Along with the trawls, the team scouted for floating debris, finding things along the lines of rubber boots, buckets, crates, and plastic toys. Preliminary research took place in the months leading up to the expedition. Sailing from England to Portugal, Morocco, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Guyana, and through the Caribbean, the team of the Sea Dragon found plastic debris on every beach visited. Along with visible debris like plastic bottles and flip flops, the team found tiny fragments of plastic and pre-production pellets called "nurdles."
What's frightening is that this story is playing out all over the world. Our waste is turning up in the most remote corners of the planet, including the middle of the oceans. Other research groups are conducting similar studies, and hopefully the combined knowledge of these expeditions will lead us to a solution.5gyres.org
panexplore.com
A research expedition has been conducted in the North... more
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This is an informative website about the five plastic garbage patches around the world.
http://5gyres.org/
http://vimeo.com/8350606
By MaximenkoThis is an informative website about the five plastic garbage patches around the... more
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The Pacific Ocean has been used as a toilet by billions of humans for many years, and a Texas-sized island of plastic garbage has accumulated in an area called the North Pacific Gyre. This area, fed by prevailing ocean currents and winds, holds a gigantic "island" of plastic trash several feet thick, swirling like a huge, loose, plastic bowel movement in what used to be a pristine ocean. Congratulations, Homo Sapiens; you've achieved dominion over the earth and have turned it into a dump.The Pacific Ocean has been used as a toilet by billions of humans for many years, and... more
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The Great Pacific Garbage Dump Stretches From California to China
By DARCY BONFILS and IMAEYEN IBANGA
Aug. 6, 2008
The world's largest trash dump doesn't sit on some barren field outside an urban center. It resides thousands of miles from any land — in the Pacific Ocean.
Known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the "dump" is composed mainly of plastic, which isn't biodegradable.
Instead, the plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces in the patch that extends thousands of miles, from California's coast to China.
A series of currents in the Pacific Ocean create a circular effect that pulls debris from North America, Asia and the Hawaiian Islands into a toxic stew. Then it shoots it into a graveyard of 3.5 million tons of trash that's 80 percent plastic.
Moore said he has noticed an alarming trend. The quantities have increased dramatically — more than doubling in five years. And Moore said there is no reason to believe the trend will slow.
And the plastic isn't just floating around in the ocean; new evidence suggests it is making its way into wildlife.
"I found 26 pieces of plastic, all different colors inside one stomach," said marine researcher Christiana Boerger.
Birds also are making a meal of the plastic, and large quantities have been found in their stomachs.
But the biggest debate surrounding the patch isn't its existence or its environmental impact, but rather how to clean it up.
"The experts say there is no silver bullet. We are going to keep looking, but at the moment it is not clear what the best course of action would be to deal with the materials that are already there," said Steve Russell of the American Chemical Council.
Moore, the patch's discoverer, said it's virtually impossible to clean it up. He said that stopping it from growing may be the best approach, which also may prevent other ocean dumps from forming.
Beach cleanups and improved recycling could help.
"The planet is a closed system. So everything that happens on Earth stays on Earth," said Steve Fleischl, president of the Waterkeeper Alliance . "What we need to do is to accept responsibility at the local level and rescue the amount of plastic that comes down our waterways and into our ocean."
Check out the links below for more information on the garbage patch and ocean conservation.
http://www.algalita.org/
http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/PageServer?pagename=home
http://www.waterkeeper.org/The Great Pacific Garbage Dump Stretches From California to China
By DARCY BONFILS... more
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