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Mario Aguilera / Scripps Institution of Oceanography
SEAPLEX researchers encounter a large ghost net with tangled rope, net, plastic, and various biological organisms during a 2009 expedition in the Pacific gyre. Matt Durham (seen wearing a blue shirt) is pictured with Miriam Goldstein.
The amount of plastic trash in the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" has increased 100-fold during the past 40 years, causing "profound" changes to the marine environment, according to a new study.
Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego found that insects called "sea skaters" or "water striders" were using the trash as a place to lay their eggs in greater numbers than before.
In a paper published by the journal Biology Letters, researchers said this would have implications for other animals, the sea skaters' predators -- which include crabs -- and their food, which is mainly plankton and fish eggs.
The scientists also pointed to a previous Scripps study that found nine percent of fish had plastic waste in their stomachs.
The "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" -- which is roughly the size of Texas -- was created by plastic waste that finds its way into the sea and is then swept into one area, the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, by circulating ocean currents known as a gyre.
NOAA
This map shows the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone within the North Pacific Gyre.
The Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition, known as SEAPLEX, traveled about 1,000 miles west of California in August 2009.
A statement on Scripps' website said the scientists had "documented an alarming amount of human-generated trash, mostly broken down bits of plastic the size of a fingernail floating across thousands of miles of open ocean."
Scripps graduate student Miriam Goldstein, SEAPLEX’s chief scientist, said that plastic had arrived in the ocean in such numbers in a "relatively short" period.
Dec. 29, 2007: NBC's Kerry Sanders reports on a huge mass of garbage floating in the Pacific Ocean that is killing marine life and growing larger each day.
"Plastic only became widespread in late '40s and early '50s, but now everyone uses it and over a 40-year range we've seen a dramatic increase in ocean plastic," she said. "Historically we have not been very good at stopping plastic from getting into the ocean so hopefully in the future we can do better."
Jim Leichter / Scripps Institution of Oceanogra
Researchers found fish larvae growing on pieces of plastic, such as the one above.
Sea skaters -- relatives of pond water skaters -- normally lay their eggs on flotsam such as seashells, seabird feathers, tar lumps and pumice. The sharp rise in plastic waste had led to an increase in egg densities in the gyre area, the study found.
"We're seeing changes in this marine insect that can be directly attributed to the plastic," Goldstein said in a statement.
She told BBC News that the addition of "hundreds of millions of hard surfaces" to the Pacific was "quite a profound change."
Samples taken by the scientists showed how marine life, such as small velella pictured above, lives alongside pieces of plastic.
"In the North Pacific, for example, there's no floating seaweed like there is in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic. And we know that the animals, the plants and the microbes that live on hard surfaces are different to the ones that live floating around in the water," she added.
A garbage patch has also been found in the Atlantic Ocean, lying a few hundreds miles off the North American coast from Cuba to Virginia.
Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who said he coined the phrase the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," told msnbc.com by phone that the only solution was to switch to using biodegradable plastic and let the plastic gradually disperse.
"We can't clean it up. It's just too big. You'd have to have the entire U.S. Navy out there, round the clock, continuously towing little nets. And it's produced so fast, they wouldn't be able to keep up," he said.
Ebbesmeyer said in 10,000 years scientists might find a layer of plastic in the ground and use this as evidence of "the plastic people."
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Leave a Comment:
Good luck stopping China from dumping all their waste.
I am certainly reluctant to put in place any more liberty reducing laws. However, in this case, it wouldn't hurt to have some sort of law introducing incentives to use much more biodegradable plastics such as those made by a company called "cereplast".
I live and along the Mississippi, south of St. Louis MO. and I can tell you first hand the amount of plastic containers and other plastic waste floating down the river is truly unbelievable and very disturbing!
We can not destroy the earth,,,It will find a way to survive, even if it has to purge us!
Well I guess it's really to late, think about it the more babies being born the more trash and starvation, what the planet needs is to distroy all of us we are the plague, open your eyes and don't blame it on the plastic. Where there is a need there will be a want and big busness and capitolism work together with the people you all elect so keep you legs closed and your pants zipped up and let the elderly die when they are suppose to. Look at all the platic and chemical used for there purpose used once and then discarded. etc, etc. If you think the Goverments going to help you live blindly, If you think your vote is going to count think again people have been voteing for a long time and it still hasn't got any better, All the money they get generated for their campaigns good do good for us but they spend it on stupidness, everybody is going crazy the kids grow up with no more values the police are brutalizing us as we pay them through our taxes that we pay WHY? They send people to war and try to let us belive its for our freedom you've got to be kiddin, the goverment wants to implement what we are doing to ourselves. So I guess it's time for you all to go back to sleep walking and being stressed out with the way they have you. be happy there is plastic in the oceans and disease because it's too late geneside the only way.. out. and who ever survives can try to live in our wake. They spend alot of money on trying to see if life could be lived on another planet so they can take there ways and polute that one and don't think you will have a ticket there unless you are part of a goverment.
May be time for another ad campaign showing an indian wearing a buckskin suit in a canoe, paddling across an ocean covered with floating plastic, with a tear running down his cheek. I remember this as a kid (in the mid-60"s) and have never forgotten it. Believe it or not, kids pay attention to stuff like that.
Humans are just like monkeys, what they don't tear up they crap on!
If only we could convince the asians that ground up plastic was a better aphrodesiac than Rhino horns! Just saying!
Who gives flip???
Lets pray that the human race never escapes from the Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.
C.S,Lewis
Who is to say, all of this additional trash is not a direct result of the cruise ship industry?
100 fold of trash - yeah, that's about the same increase as the number of people vacationing on cruises during that same time period.
All lies, repeated over and over. The plastic patch is actually less than 1 percent of the geographic size of Texas!!! The University of Oregon has conclusively debunked this foul myth but someone wants to keep the lies alive: oregonstate.edu/urm/ncs/archives/2011/jan/oceanic-%E2%80%9Cgarbage-patch%E2%80%9D-not-nearly-big-portrayed-media
I wonder how much of this came from the tsumani they had in Japan?
I just posted the same thing! ; )
good point ...
I think those floating Toyotas made it to land tho
Any chance this big increase could be related to the tsunami that hit Japan? An entire town was taken out to sea. There are soccer balls showing up in Alaska!
Quick - somebody outlaw tsunamais. If this blasted scientist is so worried, then organize some boats and scoop up the mess like the do with oil. Or go out there and set itt on fire (yes, things on water will burn).
Plastic Schmastic... I'm just can't get over the possibility of John Travolta possibly being a nut gargler...
that's been a rumor for years man...its possible.
Question, why is it when something like this is examined it is always the worst thing ever? Before some of you go berserk about asking that, stop and think. We do sink manmade objects to help support coral and create reefs for example. I am not saying we shouldn't be less polluting. The goal is to leave as little pollution as practically possible. However, every scientific study of anything these days is always doom and gloom. Every single one. Is this what has become of science trying to create the next great "disaster"? I just find it odd that anything related to human activity on this planet is automatically considered heinous and a disaster when science gets involved these days.
One thing to remember, too, is that this planet will survive long past humans. It survived periods of great glaciation. It survived temps 10C warmer than it is now. I survived meteor strikes. It survived monstrous earthquakes and volcanoes. It will survive us humans too. We humans are quite arrogant to believe "we" can save the planet. The planet doesn't need us to be saved. It will march right along. We have this idea of what the planet SHOULD be and that we humans can create that type of planet. Sorry, nature doesn't work that way.
I agree. Heck, humans and trees will be the fossil fuel for the next race of humans if there is an ice age or some similar world wide catastrophe. They also blame too much on just the U.S.A. There is South America, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan and other countries that are on the Atlantic ocean. Even Australia. Some countries have no source of drinking water besides plastic bottles. People need to clean up their own back yard before picking on others.
Sonya needs a map. Japan, Taiwan, and Australia are on the Atlantic Ocean?
We need to quit talking about it and start cleaning it up. Let's get a world wide coalition to do the job. Cleaning the ocean is imperative because it's such a huge food source for so many of us. This has to be done. Where can I sign up to help?
GREED and TOTAL IGNORANCE are leading causes as to why our earth is dying. People have no real concern for anything until it is too late then they scratch their heads and act like they are in suspense as to why it is happening.No one wants to take the blame,But it is every single human beings fault on this earth because people need to cease producing so much trash at a rate it cannot be broken down fast enough. I despise the Idiot or Idiots who came up with the idea of tossing trash in the oceans,They are teaching children it is ok to litter. Next time you see an article like this don't bitch and complain, Go to the sources and make your voice heard! Oh and also stop producing so much trash yourself. If you see someone litter tell them you do not appreciate their sloven laziness.
Send out a recycle ship immediately. Eye will have my people contact Obama's people and they will spend trillions on it right away.
I see an opportunity here for someone who could conceive of some way to clean up the plastic & garbage in the ocean. How, I don't know but perhaps a plausible idea...
wow this was shocking...simply shocking.
we can all make changes to improve this situation.....
I no longer buy individual waters...I have 2 that I keep refilling..one for the car and one for when im in the house and or walking..
we have to do sometyhing here people...inforce larger fines for littering/dumping is one, and start using more glass
I think it would be a great mine for recycling companies. As long as nature keeps taking the refuse to the same area year after year.
Why is any country still allowed to put that kind of garbage into the oceans? This is why recycling needs to be a federal law, not these cheesy state laws that do nothing and have no teeth in them.
Metals rust away, and paper devolves and they go back into the environment.
We went plastic without any thought to consequent, like so many things, and now we want to bitch about the companies that make it. Get real.
If the consumer wasn't so lazy and self centered we would all just say no to that kind of plastic and go paper, fabric bags, and better containers for drinks.
But then we would have all those country's cutting down trees to make paper, instead of bamboo, which is a fast turn around product, and we would be doing harm to the environment that way.
Either way, unless the governments step in and put teeth into recycle and no more dumping in our oceans, it will just keep getting worse.
I knew about this, and I still find it totally disgusting! Human neglect, carelessness and corporate pollution has done a number on Mother Nature! When one factors in the impact of military detonation of nuclear bombs over the years since the 1940s, there's no need to debate about "natural" causes" or "human-made" causes when it comes to the crazy patterns of weather around the planet!!
Reminds me of the movie WALL-E. That may very well be our future (but without the 700 year vacation in space).
Maybe we should be less concerned about "global warming" and put serious effort into cleaning up this mess. The time to realize the profound impact of our trashing on our precious oceans is long over, and should be addressed.