[benjamin1greer]

If you took a boat out to the so-called Pacific garbage patch—a swirling region of the ocean where plastic is trapped by wind and ocean currents—you won't find anything resembling a "garbage patch." The water would actually look quite pristine—until you drag a net through it to reveal floating flecks of plastic, mostly glitter-sized or smaller. The amount of plastic in the region has grown 100 fold in the last 40 years, but it still really doesn't look like much. Yet these barely visible pieces of plastic are completely remaking the ocean. more

[kpoirier]

Sure, we all know pollution destroys ecosystems, but, for better or for worse, pollution can create ecosystems, too. The billions of tiny pieces of plastic that are now floating in our oceans are exactly that: a novel ecosystem humans have unwittingly made by throwing away too much plastic. Microbes and insects that might have no business thriving in the middle of the ocean suddenly have found a new home amidst all that drifting plastic.

[Klintel]

Sea skaters, for example, have found a plastic breeding ground paradise. The water insect skims across the ocean surface eating plankton and laying its eggs on the hard surfaces of flotsam, which is now in abundance as plastics have taken over our world. A 2012 study found that skater eggs increased with microplastic pieces in the ocean. Occasionally, bigger pieces of plastic will show up enveloped in thousands of sea skater eggs, like a one-gallon plastic jug covered with 70,000 of them, 15 layers thick. here

[propertyconditionassessme]

You've probably heard of the "Pacific garbage patch," also called the "trash vortex." It's a…

[nikileshsa]

This summer’s sweep was funded by the remains of a CAN $1-million grant from the Japanese government to clean tsunami debris off British Columbia’s coast. But we don’t need a tsunami to get plastic in the ocean; Ocean Legacy estimates that only a third of what they collect comes from the 2011 disaster. Every year, coastal nations send a combined 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of plastic into the ocean, but Canada, which has more coastline than any other country in the world, has little to no funding or mainstream solutions for dealing with what washes up here. Left to degrade on shore, the plastic breaks down into ever smaller fragments that animals eat or that leach flame retardants, insecticides, and other toxic chemicals into the environment.

[Johnpatter]

Across the warehouse are mini mountains of styrofoam and bottles and rope, and there are only nine days left to sort it all. here

[RichardG]

As Dubois sorts, Middleton returns with a $45 bill for tipping a truckload of rusted cylinders and other items that couldn’t be recycled into the landfill—one more receipt to add to the pile. They always suspected it would be impossible to find a home for every last ocean scrap.

[franklions99]

waste Any materials that are left over from biological or other systems that have no value, so they can be disposed of as trash or recycled for some new use.

[caulinda87]

Watch out, ocean trash! On September 8, a project to scoop plastic debris from the ocean launched its first phase from Alameda, Calif. Called Ocean Cleanup, its creators claim it that by 2040 can remove 90 percent of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. If true, that would be a lot of plastic.

[lilomar]

Another big issue, Martini says, is that there’s no evidence yet that the system can actually collect much plastic. The latest California trial will be the first real test of how well the system may works. more

[melvster]

Solar-powered lights, satellite antennas and other equipment show boats where the booms are. These features should help prevent boats from colliding with the booms. They’ll also help project scientists track where the floating system is. Periodically, boats will go out to the booms and ferry home much of the plastic it’s holding for recycling.

[farmer]

A lot of the debris washes ashore, gets shredded or sinks, Eriksen says. So many of the small particles would end up below the project’s 3-meter-deep skirt. Meanwhile, new particles are always entering the ocean. That’s why 5 Gyres and other conservation groups are focused on prevention, not cleanup. Persuading people to use less plastic in the first place is the best way to reduce ocean trash, Eriksen says. more

[numlock1982]

satellite A moon orbiting a planet or a vehicle or other manufactured object that orbits some celestial body in space.

[gjenedavidsong]

"It's a bit artificial how the oceans have been defined," he says. "Geographers have just put up these boundaries in the oceans not thinking about how the ocean circulation actually works."

[BitCoinPurse]

"So these catchment areas are biogeographic regions and confine where plankton is likely to live," says van Sebille. [links]

[baloney]

For example, says van Sebille, while traditional atlases define the ocean west of Tasmania as the Indian and the ocean to the east as the Pacific, the new model shows otherwise. here

[renedfuller84]

Also, even though Madagascar and South Africa and Mozambique are in the Indian Ocean, their garbage flows into the South Atlantic, says van Sebille. here