Wired Science

We've studied the rubber duckies and sneaker spills in the North Pacific. This will be a great asset to any teacher's materials.

thanks for the wonderful resource... My students plot the movement of Nike shoes.. your video segment will be a great "hook" for the following day after the inquiry activity... thank you!!!!

Can you provide the date and times for Flotsam found to be re-broadcast. Thanks.

Out-of-season fishing trawlers should be recruited to trawl the pacific gyro with their nets to clean up this huge shocking garbage dump. The plastic should then be recycled to create shelters to be used in disaster relief.

We're right at the cusp of a necessary revolution as to how we live our lives. Without conservation the unseen effects are now having an affect on our atmosphere, oceans, lands, food & water supply. The arguement of whether or not human activity has an effect on its own well-being and existence and the environment is counterproductive and self defeating to the world environment as a whole. When I first heard of the trash floating in the Pacific it was about 6 months ago, I thought it was rumor- I could find no facts at the time. The rumor at the time stated 5 miles wide of trash and trash found up to 2 miles deep. So much for rumor, as now the area of trash coverage is the size of Texas!!! Let's get those off-season fishing vessels out there. Providing clean up for us and income for them. I would financially support this type of clean up.

Last year my wife and I had the privilege of hearing Jean Michel Cousteau speak at the University of Buffalo about the plight of our oceans. Mr. Cousteau showed a film to us about the out of control dumping of plastics in the Pacific Ocean in the Hawaiian Island chain. I confirm this same dumping is happening across the Great Lakes in the United States and Canada as well as on the Atlantic Ocean. I surf in both of these places.

As a Great Lakes and ocean surfer I directly see the huge amount of stress that has been placed upon the water of this planet. The Great Lakes and oceans of this world have been turned into an enormous dump for plastics of every kind. A local group of surfers and concerned residents did a beach clean up last month in Crystal Beach, Ontario, Canada and found large amounts of plastics of all sizes on the shoreline. This was part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Clean Up.

I was in Avon, North Carolina in the end of September and in less than an hour collected two bags of plastic trash in the National Seashore area in Avon, N.C. on the Atlantic Ocean.

Everything that Cousteau and Wired Science is saying is factual and true.

Thank you for moving this issue forward. We must get our governments to recycle worldwide and clean up the water of this planet to protect ourselves and the planets environment. This issue is another component of how man has gone crazy in our life time and mismanaged the resources of this planet that we are all dependent on.

The water and air of this planet must be more efficently managed and protected. The current status is harmful to our health and the future of this planet.

Watched this segment on local PBS station last night. Found it very informative and entertaining. Used it as part of a lesson in 6th-grade Social Studies. The kids very much enjoyed it, especially the spot on the sneakers!

Thank you for making the media available online!

Can we purchase the segment for educational purposes - when will it air again?

Outstanding and eye-opening segment. Plastic sux!

F

Wow! Trawling our oceans for... Plastic! Whodathunkit?

While it's disheartening to know that so much garbage is floating in the oceans, I'm glad plastics are present because they are recoverable, most float and are inert. At least we learned something from the migration of the duckies that could benefit our knowledge of the currents. Now I'd like to see that knowledge applied to a clean-up effort.
Dave

I feel bad for the ocean because it is getting all this pollution. All this garbage is going to kill the plants and animals. Also the people who swim the water might get sick. It is sad how people want our ocean to be clean but those people are making it worse for everybody. All this pollution is going to lead to global warming. I feel really bad for the animals and plants that live in the ocean.

If humans are causing a rise in earths temp. What is causing the tempature to increase on Mars? What happens to our oceans when the earths magnetic field shifts?

Is there a connection between the north Pacific gyre { garbage patch } and the Sea surface image showing a hot spot at nearly the same location ? As shown by :
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/PSB/EPS/SST/data/anomnight.10.8.2007.gif

D Beach

Is this for sale or can you air it again. Thank you

Excellent article. I have found both the plastic toys and the Nike shoes on the beaches near Yakutat, Alaska and even in the inland channels. More science education needs to be devoted to the harm that marine debris are causing to our oceans. As a meteorologist, I encourage kids to learn physical oceanography at every chance I get. Keep up the good work. I'm tired of seeing plastic bags and dead critters wrapped in nets, etc. Cheers.

The Hawaii longline fishing fleet refers to this area as the "toilet bowl" and have been fishing in this area for years. This is an area where currents converge so theoretically good fishing area but they also risk fouling their props and rudder and sustaining damage while fishing in this area.

To mitigate this, the vessels routinely "harvest" various debris out of the water mainly direlect mooring/tow-lines, trawl and cargo nets. So they are not only taking preventative measures and saving themselves approximately $1000-$2500 in damages and downtime (an analysis was done on this) to themselves or other vessels transiting the area, they are also contributing to the removal of debris that ends up on our Hawaiian shoreline and are potentially harmful to marine mammals.

Upon return to Honolulu Harbor, the nets are deposited into a specially designe receptacle by employees of United Fishing Agency (UFA) and POP Fishing and Marine. When the bin reaches its capacity, a private contractor (Schnitzer Steel) hauls the bin away to its facility where the debris is chopped into smaller pieces and then transported to the H-Power plant where it is converted into electricty. This material is excellent fuel as it has more btu's than coal so more energy is produced per unit. The bin also serves as a deposit site for various islandwide beach cleanups by fishing clubs and other organizations.

This is all a part of the Honolulu Derelict Net recycling program, a VOLUNTARY partnership between government agencies, private businesses and the fishermen. Partners include the Hawaii Longline Association, WESPAC (Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council), NOAA, United Fishing Agency (Fish auction), POP Fishing and Marine, H-Power plant, Schnitzer Steel Hawaii, State of Hawaii Dept. of Transportation, City and County of Honolulu, Matson Nagvigation company and University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program.

Its a great program and all involved are glad to be a part of it... BUT everyone needs to keep in mind that marine debris also occurs naturally and provides shelter and habitat for hundreds of juvenile fish and crustaceans. A recent dipsosal of a tangled mass of rope, trawl and cargo net revealed a colony of juvenile damselfish and other species that had sought shelter in this mass of debris. They obviously could not escape in time before the fishermen hauled the mass out of the water and those poor buggers ended up as dried fish chips all over the pier. Kind of like some aliens come out of nowhere and scooping up an apartment building full of inhabitants.

So removal of debris has its pros and cons depending on the type of debris. Something to keep in mind.