Sci-Tech : Plastic garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean. Scripps Institution of Oceanography SEAPLEX researchers spotted a large net tangled with plastic in the "garbage patch" in the Pacific Ocean.
Photo: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Scientists discovered extensive plastic garbage patch in the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, located some 1,000 miles off California's coast. What is intriguing is that how could there be this so much plastic floating in a random patch of ocean so far away from land. Little was known about the ‘Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch,’ its size, the threat it poses to marine life before the expedition was undertaken by a team of graduate students from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The team left on August 2 and returned on 21{+s}{+t}.
The purpose of the study was to survey and understand plastic distribution and abundance in the Pacific Ocean, taking samples for analysis in the laboratory and assessing the impacts of debris on marine life. Plastic Breaks Down in Ocean, After All. August 20, 2009 Though ocean-borne plastic trash has a reputation as an indestructible, immortal environmental villain, scientists announced yesterday that some plastics actually decompose rapidly in the ocean.
And, the researchers say, that's not a good thing. The team's new study is the first to show that degrading plastics are leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A into the seas, possibly threatening ocean animals, and us. Scientists had previously thought plastics broke down only at very high temperatures and over hundreds of years. The researchers behind a new study, however, found that plastic breaks down at cooler temperatures than expected, and within a year of the trash hitting the water.
The Japan-based team collected samples in waters from the U.S., Europe, India, Japan, and elsewhere, lead researcher Katsuhiko Saido, a chemist with the College of Pharmacy at Nihon University in Japan, said via email. Cooking Up Plastic Soup in the Seas Plastic Breaks Down Fast. Plastics In Oceans Decompose, Release Hazardous Chemicals, Surprising New Study Says. In the first study to look at what happens over the years to the billions of pounds of plastic waste floating in the world's oceans, scientists are reporting that plastics — reputed to be virtually indestructible — decompose with surprising speed and release potentially toxic substances into the water.
Reporting at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the researchers termed the discovery "surprising. " Scientists always believed that plastics in the oceans were unsightly, but a hazard mainly to marine animals that eat or become ensnared in plastic objects. "Plastics in daily use are generally assumed to be quite stable," said study lead researcher Katsuhiko Saido, Ph.D.
"We found that plastic in the ocean actually decomposes as it is exposed to the rain and sun and other environmental conditions, giving rise to yet another source of global contamination that will continue into the future. " Funding for Saido's research came from Nihon University. Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Attracts Explorers. July 31, 2009 It may lack the allure of the North Pole or Mount Everest, but a Pacific Ocean trash dump twice the size of Texas is this summer's hot destination for explorers.
The Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, situated in remote waters between California and Hawaii, is created by ocean currents that pick up millions of tons of the world's discarded plastic. As much as 10 percent of the 260 million tons of plastic produced annually ends up in the oceans, much of it in trash vortices like the Pacific garbage patch.
This summer, two separate expeditions will set sail for the patch to document the scope of the problem and call global attention to disastrous ocean pollution. "Every single person who has ever been to a beach anywhere has seen plastic, even in the remotest of places," said Doug Woodring, head of the ocean-health nonprofit Project Kaisei that will launch two boats next week. (Follow the Kaisei expedition's progress with an interactive voyage tracker.) Toxic Morsels.