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Pacific Trash Island
- Jun 1, 2009 at 9:17 AM
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- Comments (37) Total Views (64789) Everyone can see this journal post.
It's getting bigger, now roughly the size of the USA. It's killing sealife and polluting our water. It has got to be one of the most disgusting things I have ever heard of. No, it's not the Pacific Ocean, but rather a huge floating island of trash IN the Pacific Ocean, north of Hawaii.
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It is so gross, it has it's own name, like something out of a horror film: The Great Garbage Patch. The US EPA is currently monitoring it. Better yet, there is an organization and a website to educate people and hopefully stop adding to it (or shrink it??). They encourage everyone to help spread the word by joining the fan group on FaceBook called "Stop Trashing the Ocean". Currently there is one plan underway to clean up this waste site. The Environmental Cleanup Coalition has started the Gyre Cleanup Project!
This picture is in the public domain
This garbage patch is actually a giant floating island made up entirely of trash, mostly discarded plastic. The currents in the Pacific Ocean form a vortex that traps the trash in a giant mass that cannot float away due to the currents; this is called an Oceanic Gyre. Greenpeace has a great animation to show how this works. Trash floats to the ocean from just about every waterway there is, eventually floats to the open sea and gets stuck in the vortex. Since most plastics float, it never sinks to the bottom, but stays at the top like a gigantic island, causing all sorts of problems for sea animals. Jellyphish mistake this trash for zooplankton and consume it, birds and turtles mistake it for fish and jellyphish and consume it; the trash is then stuck inside the animals gut, ultimately leading to its death.
This picture is in the public domain
This blog is part of a series where we learn about ocean related topics in preparation for World Ocean Day, June 8th, 2009! Check out my profile for the ocean theme. Are YOU ready to give up on plastic?
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Tonya
AKA sunmoonstars
Comments:
I had read a brief piece on this recently but no pictures. Even with the photos here, I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around this. Really disturbing.
Jellyphish
You mean Jellyfish right? Not our own Cafemom member? :D
I'm pleased to see you feature this. I've heard so many people say it's not real. It's sad to see such denial about something that needs to be taken very seriously.
I've seen things on Discovery channel about this. It's so disgusting.
I heard that you can see this on Google Ocean (which I now REALLY need to go download). I have tears in my eyes looking at these photos. We are such idiots. Sometimes humanity just sucks.
I think she meant jellyfish. :)
Last night I watched An Inconvenient Truth. It's a very informative documentary.
OP, good post, BTW.
it is disgusting and sadly thats just the tip of the iceburg...heres one about space litter.
http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1475579/SPACE_LITTER_SPIN_OFF_TRASH_ISLAND_JOURNAL
Rana (and others).... you can tell you spend too much time on Cafemom when.... common words get spelled like member names! That is so funny I did that. Nice catch!
evwsquared - oh, I have google earth, I am going to check it out when I get home and see if it shows on there. Awesome idea. I'll post a screenshot if I can get it to work.
And yes, this is truely disgusting!
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I'm so glad you posted this! It really is horrifying.
- krisr169
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