Photo:
Plastic Garbage Mass in North Pacific Gyre
Graphic art –
GOOD
The Great Pacific Garbage Dump is Discovered
In 1997, American Charles Moore was sailing his yacht back to
California after participating in the Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race.
He chose a short cut usually avoided by sailors and entered the North
Pacific Gyre...
.
In a gyre, very little wind and extremely high pressure weather
systems combine to greatly reduce ocean circulation. The largest marine
ocean ecosystems are subtropical gyres which cover 40% of the earth's
surface. These immense regions of slowly spiraling warm equatorial air
pull in winds and converging sea currents. Everything in a gyre moves
slowly. Yachtsmen avoid them because there is too little wind for
effective sailing. Gyres are the ‘doldrums’ of maritime history and
legends. They contain regions of ‘dead calm’ where no wind blows for
several days. Surface chlorophyll density is low, plant and animal
growth and biomass is low as well.
Expecting little excitement and a slow uneventful cruise towards
California, Moore was soon to have a shocking, unexpected experience.
Photo:
Ocean Currents in the Pacific Ocean
Graphic art –
NOAA
The North Pacific Gyre is an immense region of slowly spiraling, warm
equatorial air that pulls in winds and converging sea currents. The
Gyre's current system has different names depending on location as seen
in this map. Slowly turning air and sea currents expire long after the
garbage they embrace has been added to the North Pacific Gyre. Gyres are
found in all the world’s oceans; the garbage debris problem in the
North Pacific Gyre has relatives elsewhere. In nine years, the North
Pacific Gyre expanded 10X to 25X times faster than models of global
warmng predicted and it is at least twice the size of Texas. It has
expanded to the northeast into the eastern Pacific and portions of the
Hawaiian archipelago – the northwest island chain and the
Papahnaumokukea Marine National Monument.
Photo:
Monk Seal, Laysan Albatross / French Frigate Shoals
Photo –
Duncan Wright, USFWS / Wikimedia
The ocean area of Papahnaumokukea is an extraordinary recent addition
to America's group of 13 National Marine Sanctuaries that are
administered by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Encompassing 140,000 square miles (360,000 km) of ocean water, ten
islands and atolls of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Papahnaumokukea
is the largest Marine Protected Area in the world. The Hawaiian Islands
National Wildlife Refuge is also within the Marine National Monument
boundary and is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Papahnaumokukea supports 7,000 species, one quarter of which are
endemic.
Photo: Green Turtle at Coral Reef / Hawaii
Photo –
Mila Zinkova & Keta / Wikipedia
The southwest quadrant of the North Pacific Gyre (NPG) is immediately
north of the NW Hawaiian Islands and the huge National Marine Wildlife
Sanctuary established in June 15, 2006. A huge, still pristine,
invaluable habitat is in danger and it is already receiving pollution
from the NPG. Prominent species include the threatened Green Sea Turtle
and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal, Nihoa Finches, Nihoa Millerbird,
Laysan Duck, seabirds such as the Laysan Albatross, numerous species of
plants including
Pritchardia palms, and many species of arthropods.
Photo:
Plastic in Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Photo –
Vitauts Jaunarajs / Dreamways
Ninety percent of all rubbish floating in the world's oceans is
plastic. In 2006, UN environment programs estimated that every square
mile of ocean contained at least 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.
Floating in the surface layer are plastic products, tons of drift nets,
plastic bags, packing straps, and common household items like soap,
television tubes, automobile tires and deodorant bottles. One suspected
spill of plastic bags was measured to have covered ten miles of ocean.
Moore became increasingly shocked as he looked out upon this quiet,
isolated region of the North Pacific Ocean. He saw plastic everywhere
for the seven days it took to cross the North Pacific Gyre.
The emotional low point of Moore’s initial voyage was the
identification of a ten mile region of highest density plastic pollution
that was dominated by plastic bags. Moore and his crew identified
plastic bags from Sears, Bristol Farms, The Baby Store, El Pollo Loco,
Fred Meyer and Taco Bell ‘Chalupa’ bags. The Taco Bell plastic bags were
‘T-shirt’ bags with two hand hold holes that were first introduced in
the United States in 1979. Moore noticed that these Taco Bell plastic
bags in the NPG showed little signs of breakdown.
Photo:
Sailing A Sea of Plastic Bags
Photo –
Mister Sustainable
Upon returning home, Moore sold his business assets – he was heir to a
family fortune made in the oil industry – and founded the Algalita
Marine Research Foundation to tackle the immense problem of plastic
pollution in the North Pacific Ocean. Certainly Charles Moore was not
the first person to see the Great Pacific Garbage Dump; we can project
its origins back at least 50 years. But he appears to be the first
person to not only be horrified but have had the motivation to take
action, and the financial muscle to do so.
Joining his research and network was Curtiss Ebbesmeyer, an
oceanographer based in Seattle Washington known as the "Big Kahuna" of
beachcombers. Ebbesmeyer works with a global network of at least 1,000
beachcombers who walk the sand and meticulously collect what has washed
ashore. On the North American west coast, what is found reveals what has
been kicked out of the North Pacific Gyre. Among the more interesting
finds are aircraft parts, LEGO toys and medical waste. The big prize for
resale are glass floats that are used by the Japanese on their largest
fishing nets, which are worth $1,000 each.
Photo:
Marine Debris Removal / Papahnaumokukea Marine National Monument
Photo –
NOAA
The usual and expected input into the North Pacific Gyre is from
endless mini-events. Sailors, yachtsmen, cruise ship crews, and
passengers and merchant marine occasionally and casually toss unwanted
objects overboard. Little noticed wind continually blows trash and light
objects off ships and boats and into the sea. Other tonnage comes from
the continents. Industrial waste and human callousness put plastics into
local water environments. Rivers and streams bring plastic debris to
the coast and ocean. Such events may be trivial if taken one by one, but
they are awesomely terrible when their never ending summation is
considered.
The earliest identified mega input into the NPG was in May 1990 when a
strong storm caused 21 shipping containers to go into the ocean from a
container ship, the Hansa Carrier. Five of these were filled with Nike
sneakers and boots, perhaps as many as 40,000 pairs. The beach combers
network swung into action in California to find and match sneakers,
thereby creating pairs to sell at swap meets and make a research
contribution as well. In 1992, tens of thousands of bath tub toys such
as yellow duckies and blue turtles went into the mid Pacific ocean. In
1994, Hyundai in Seattle contributed 34,000 hockey gloves, chest
protectors and shin guards to the North Pacific Gyre Garbage Dump.
Photo:
Laysan albatross chick with adult skeleton containing plastic fragments
Photo –
Ian Jones / Wild Orchids for Trotsky:
Nurdles Live Forever... Almost
The scientific community began to focus attention on the trash in the
gyre in the early 1990s. Located in the far offshore ocean, there is no
clear international jurisdiction for the NPG Garbage Dump. Another
problem is obtaining accurate maps and graphs of the pollution in the
gyre. This ocean of plastic garbage is translucent, lies immediately
below the water's surface and is not detectable in satellite
photographs. You have go into the North Pacific Gyre to see what is
there. Early research by W James Ingraham Jr. (NOAA) predicted that
plastic objects in this gyre might slowly circulate for at least 16
years.
Moore soon discovered that the quantity of plastic junk in the NPG
was huge and had 6X time the mass of the microscopic plant and animals
(plankton) that dominate the biomass of all oceans. Early plastic
formulations were often biodegradable over several years but this is not
true for current generation plastics. 90% of the plastic garbage now in
the NPG has natural degradable cycles that are not well understood but
they likely range from 50 to 500 years. Plastic objects 50 years old
have already been found in the NPG.
Photo:
Beauty In the North Pacific Gyre Garbage Dump
Photo –
tree hugger / Rock Permaculture E-zine
State of the art commercial and industrial plastic formulations do
photo-degrade, sunlight breaking them down into smaller and smaller
pieces. Plastic polymers are molecular chains built up from identical or
similar subunits. Radiation from the sun breaks them down into smaller
molecules which are still too tough for living organisms to digest.
Sunlight will eventually degrade these molecules further, as will
atmospheric oxidative processes where oxygen atoms are added to the
plastic molecules, thereby changing molecular structure and function.
These final breakdown products can be recycled into organic molecules
that are not harmful and can be used by living organisms to build
cellular mass and perform metabolic functions. But there is a huge
'catch' to this final degradation process: it likely takes 500 years or
more.
Photo:
Dead Laysan Albratross / North Pacific Gyre
Photo –
Critoris
We are forced to consider what the plastic pollution in the North
Pacific Gyre does during its first decade of residence. Every year some
5.5 quadrillion (5.5 x 10 followed by 15 zeros) plastic pellets – about
250 billion pounds of them – are produced worldwide for use in the
manufacture of plastic products. When those pellets or products degrade –
break into fragments and disperse – the pieces also become
concentrators and transporters of toxic chemicals in the marine
environment. These plastic polymers act like sponges to soak up
pesticides such as DDT, well known plastic pollutant molecules such as
PCBs and industrial nonylphenols which are highly poisonous and do not
dissolve in sea water. Plastic polymers in the NPG concentrate these
toxic molecules up to 1,000,000X the level they would be found by
themselves in the ocean.
Jellyfish
Photo:
Pacific_Sea_Nettle_Jellyfish
Photo -
Anastasia Shesterinina / Wikipedia
Another horrific concentration process goes on with nature's most
efficient
vacuum cleaners, mucus web feeding jelly fish and salps which are the
fastest growing multi-cellular organisms on Earth. Jellyfish and Salps
are primitive invertebrates found in the oceans, with species that
inhabit every ocean environment from shallow coastal waters to the deep
ocean. Jellyfish belong to the Phylum Cnidaria and do not have the
familiar physiological systems. They breath by diffusion through their
thin skin and move by pulsation of their gelatinous body which is 90%
water. They digest using the gastrodermal lining of the gastrovascular
cavity, where nutrients are absorbed. A primitive nerve net in the
epidermis suffices to transmit stimuli and some jellyfish have primitive
light detecting organs called ocelli.
Salps are free floating tunicates that move by contraction and
pumping water through their gelatinous body. This water is strained by
feeding filters to capture and digest phytoplankton. Salps are not
closely related to jellyfish which at first glance they resemble. They
provide an important model for the creature from which primitive ocean
vertebrates first evolved more than 300 million years ago. Salps and
Jellies ‘eat’ and concentrate PCBs and industrial nonylphenols, the most
lethal industrial molecules trapped by micro-plastic pellets. These
jellies and salps are eaten by fish, which begins the upward progression
through the food chain that often ends with a human dinner plate.
Hormones
Photo:
Steroidogenesis
Diagram –
Mikael Häggström / Wikipedia
Hormones bind to receptor proteins on the cell membrane as the first
event in their activation of specific metabolic processes. Early
research data suggests that human hormone receptors for estradiol
(natural estrogen) cannot distinguish between estradiol and plastic
polymer pollutants of the type found in the North Pacific Gyre. If cell
receptors are 'taken' – 'bound up' – by the attachment of pollutant
molecules, then when the real estradiol shows up, it has nothing to bind
with and will drift away in the capillary network of the circulatory
system and eventually be excreted.
Less estradiol hormone activity in metabolism translates into less
physiological activity in the processes that this hormone mediates.
Lower several important hormone mediated physiological acclivities in
human beings and the results will be extremely serious, although not yet
predicable with precision. Estradiol mediates reproduction, sexual
metabolism and bone physiology; reflect on that for a minute. Almost
every multicellular animal has an endocrine system and critical aspects
of metabolism that require hormones for regulation and activity.
Photo:
Laguna Gyre / Art piece
Made from plastic bags to call attention to North Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch
Photo –
Virginia Fleck / Flikr
Eat Plastic Until You Die
Plastic Particles and large debris were collected in each and every
trawl during ORV Alguita's first 6000 mile transect across the North
Pacific Central Gyre. The surface layer contained alarming amounts of
plastic products, tons of drifting nets, plastic bags, packing straps,
and common household items like soap. A soup of plastic fragments was
seen in the water column on every dive to confirm findings at the end of
a trawl. A suspected container spill of plastic bags covered more than
10 miles of the center of the gyre.
Photo:
Nurdles on the Beach
Photo –
Algalita Marine Research Foundation / Heal The Bay
Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating
in the oceans. The UN Environment Programs estimated in 2006 that every
square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. North
Pacific Gyre plastic is 100 million tonnes and growing. Nurdles are
tiny, pre-production plastic pellets and resin material whose annual
production is at least 60 billion pounds in the United States alone.
Much of the multi-billion tons of annual nurdle production ends up on
beaches. A 2001 study of beach debris in Orange County California found
that 98% was nurdles. Huge quantities of nurdles have been found in the
Indian and Pacific Oceans, the Bay of Bengal and offshore waters in the
Philippines. Variations of the Garbage Dump crisis in the North Pacific
Gyre are found worldwide.
Nurdles enter the environment when they ‘escape’ the plastic industry
during manufacture, transport and packaging. Nurdles are also not
retained by the usual trash capture devices such as storm drain screen
grates. Sewer systems and waste water treatment facilities do not have
any method to remove nurdles before their water is released into the
local environment. Nurdles that end up in the coastal ocean ecosystem
can be transported to the North Pacific Gyre by the North Equatorial
Current.
Photo:
Artificial Floating Islands made from NPG Plastic Debris
Architect's Concept –
Michael Barton / Punk Rock Permaculture E-zine
Much of the plastic has become brittle and broken down into smaller
and smaller pieces. The tiny bits of colored plastic are mistaken by
birds and marine life for food,and get eaten. One result is that birds
have their bellies so crammed full of plastic that they can't take in
normal food. You can find their bodies drying in the sun on islands of
the bird-rich Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The poster child for the
consumption of pelagic plastic debris has to be the Laysan albatross.
Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the
stomachs of dead seabirds which mistake them for food.
"Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Coral Reef Ecosystem Reserve, Monk
Seals, the most endangered mammal species in the United States, get
entangled in debris, especially cheap plastic nets lost or discarded by
the fishing industry. Ninety percent of Hawaiian green sea turtles nest
here and eat the debris, mistaking it for their natural food, as do
Laysan and Black-footed albatross. Indeed, the stomach contents of
Laysan albatross look like the cigarette lighter shelf at a convenience
store they contain so many of them... " (Robert W Henry III, biologist
at the University of California, Santa.)
Photo:
Floating Islands in the Pacific Gyre
Artist Concept –
tree hugger / Rock Permaculture E-zine
Actions
There is no clear legal jurisdiction, no easily identified group of
countries that can be identified as legally responsible for the North
Pacific Garbage Patch. All of the plastic made in history still exists
in some form with much of it accumulating in the oceans. In some regions
of the North Pacific Gyre, there is more plastic than biological
organisms. Is there any way to clean up the North Pacific Gyre? Do we
dare think about all the world's oceans? Vacuuming is out of the
question. Imagine vacuuming every square inch of the land area of the
United States down to a depth of 30 meters.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United
States is looking at techniques to remove concentrated debris and not
kill everything in the area at the same time. As a government agency of
the United States, NOAA's interest resides in the impact of this
situation on the outer Hawaiian islands and the National Marine
Sanctuary. The North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ) is the
N. Pacific area where marine debris concentrates for several years
because of convergence, subsequently to impact the Hawaiian archipelago.
The situation is complicated further because the STCZ shifts seasonally
between 23 deg and 37 deg. N. latitude. It's location is also affected
by other factors that include El Niño.
Photo:
Small Floating Islands in the Pacific Gyre made from plastic garbage, then planted
Digital Art –
tree hugger / Rock Permaculture E-zine
During this summer of 2009, a privately funded research voyage of
conservationists and scientists is making two trips through the North
Pacific Gyre between Hawaii and San Francisco. They will test techniques
for dredging waste without destroying the majority of sea life in the
same area. This is an evaluation of variations in the micro-dimensions
of netting. Other researchers are looking at possible uses for cleaned
and recycled plastic waste taken from the ocean.
Heal the Bay is an excellent example of focused, local political
action. The challenge posed by the Great Pacific Garbage Dump in the
North Pacific Gyre is awesome and intimidating. However, aspects of the
problem can be effectively attacked. Any action that reduces the flow of
plastic debris into the environment will reduce the plastic flow into
the NPG and reduce the health dangers created by plastic pollution.
Devoted to the protection of Southern California watersheds and
coastal waters, particularly Santa Monica Bay, Heal the Bay and
Assemblyman Paul Krekorian sponsored Bill AB 258. Major provisions of
this legislation include ‘promoting’ zero discharge of nurdles, and
implementing new, strict protocols for monitoring and reporting. AB 258
also requires all facilities involved in the manufacture, handling and
transport of plastic to implement best management practices to greatly
decrease the ‘escape’ of their plastic precursors and products into the
environment. Signed into law on October 14, 2007 by Governor
Schwarzenegger, the provisions of AB 258 were activated in January 2009.
Photo:
”Reduce Your Plastic Footprint Now!” – The Terminator
Digital Art –
fanpop
At the end of the day, let's get personal. You’ve heard what follows
many times and it’s time to read it again :) This global problem
emphasizes the need to reduce the use of plastic in all our lives and
that is something that is very do-able on an individual and personal
scale. The mega-scale problem in the North Pacific Gyre is the summation
of the plastic used in hundreds of millions of individual lives. Take
that canvas/cloth bag into the store when you go shopping.
Talk about evil plastics that cannot bio-degrade every chance you get
at home, in school and in the community. Gorgeous Maui (Hawaii), is one
of the most beautiful tourist islands in the world, and is almost one
thousand miles distant from the nearest border of the North Pacific Gyre
and its monstrous garbage patch. There is always a vast quantity of
nurdles and large pieces of deep ocean drift nets on local beaches
amidst quantities of plastic debris. Sadly as the NPG garbage patch
grows, its distance to Maui is shrinking.
Clean and recycle the plastic you must use whenever possible.
Organize and lead a family/school/church cleanup of your favorite
trashed area. Do that with your mates on Friday afternoon before the pub
weekend begins. "Yes You Can! Yes, We Can!!”
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