Garbage Island

[william24424]

Has anyone seen the actual floating island of garbage? I've heard about this on the news tonight where they claimed there is a scattered pile of plastic/trash the size of Texas is stuck in a vortex somewhere between San Francisco and Hawaii. Has anyone else heard of this or should I lay off the eggnog? Thank you and Merry Christmas.

 

[letterman]

they decrated it for the holidays

Use over 19,000 luminaries to light it up. My gosh it looked like something out of Hollywood. And you could sail right through it.

 

[Ernie]

Something similar in the Atlantic

Making the passage from Bermuda to Puerto Rico I noticed soemthing similar. Although it wasn't "wall to wall" garbage there was enough in the middle of nowhere to make anyone a tree-hugger. It almost looked as if a giant garbage scow had just unloaded. We have got to take better care of this planet!!!!!

 

[KorculaChris]

Maybe a scow

DID dump at sea?

 

[Capt Ron;-)]

Bah Humbug!

William, Been across there nine times, it's a myth.There is some hundreds of tons of styrophome et al at the center of the Sargasso sea. Many have seen this, it is the center of the clockwise current at the Atlantic - Carribean. Like leaves in the center of a small river whirpool current.There could be some debris holding together out there, but it would be discussed at the Trans-Pac race meeting, have not heard anything about it.The size of Texas? That is a good 900 statute miles wide and would be near half way to the Sandwich Isles from S.F.Merry Christmas to all...*bzz

 

[Steve Dion]

Yes!

William:When we made our passage from Hawaii to San Diego (5 years ago) there was an amazing amount of trash floating below the Pacific High.The biggest flotsam was a crab trap that had obviously fallen off a fishing boat. It had large pieces of foam in the trap, so it would float if someone noticed that it had fallen off a boat. There were other items like dish drainers, plastic bottles and you name it if it floats it was there.What amazed me is that one could see all of this crap while sailing considering you would not notice this stuff if it were over 100 feet from the boat, but there was plenty of it! I agree that it was not wall to wall, but the amount was significant!I am sure that this phenomena existing in most of the worlds oceans!

 

[Schoolhouse Steve]

Google Earth

If it's the size of Texas we should be able to see it on google earth. I've seen other people's boats on the water, still looking for mine.

 

[Stillraining]

All you have to do

is visit Mexico particulary Cozemel the beaches were literly covered with trash. I believe poorer countries do dump large barges of trash at sea. I doubt thease form into great single masses though. But it is very sad.

 

[DC1417]

NY-NJ trash

Correct me if i'm wrong, but it wasn't that long ago that NYC dumped their trash several miles off shore. I remember problems with medical waste (syringes, etc.) washing up on Jones Beach and Sandy Hook. Now they truck all the trash out here to Ohio. I know we have adopt-a-highway litter patrols but is there anything like adopt-a-shoreline or lake litter control? I do pick up floating trash if I can snag it as I sail by. Do most sailors do this or are there good reasons not too (risks)?

 

[caguy]

Paper or plastic?

Several cities and countries have banned the use of plastic bags.http://www.nowpublic.com/oceans-becoming-garbage-patchhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=PSxihhBzCjkhttp://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0721-04.htmLets get rid of the plastic bags first and then the Mylar balloons.

 

[Capt Ron;-)]

Wrong Again!

Mr. William, a brief apology here.Talked to a few experts last night, did me research and YES, you are right! I had heard nothing about it before and did not believe it.Seems it is spread out over a vast area larger than the state of Texas, mostly at neutral bouyancy/below the surface, hard to spot by air, and is becoming a real hazard due to our throw-away society.

 

[Ross]

I have advocated a trash bag regatta

where in each boat gets a big plastic trash bag to fill and away they go fist boat back with a full bag wins. Only flotsom counts. Haven't been able to get one started yet.

 

[Stillraining]

Scarry:

I'v always been for using our renueabal forests. We get paper bags every time we shop at Safeway grocerie. Im all for a plastic bag ban!!! I think people should buy a good Carbon water filter for their home or apartment and stop buying botteled water also. It's become a huge industrie with way to much waist.Good idea Ross, but we need another option other then another plastic collection bag. I had heard that they have some "plastic like" material that is made out of vegtabal oil or somethin that will decompose if burried in soil? Anyone hear of it?

 

[Ross]

I know people that make cloth bags for their

grocery shopping. They are called canvas totes by the rest of us. That way we can even save a tree for someone to turn into toilet paper.

 

[Stillraining]

I can't say

that's a crappy Idea

 

[Brian M H23]

Parrafin wax

is a perfectly good, biodegrable, substitute for plastic - it just needs some structural strength (think waxed paper bag). If you wax-coat canvas, doe it remain flexible??

 

[Jeff]

Decision?

We went plastic when all the tree huggers boo-hooed over the paper bags.BTW, both are recyclable, as are plastic bottles and other plastics.The trick is to get morons to stop throwing their scum into or onto anything but a recycle bin, or at the very least a trash can.Most of the crap that ends up in oceans is runoff from land lubbers. IE: thrown to ground by worthless non-human, rain pushes it to gutter, gutter runs to drain, drain runs to river, river runs to ocean.There could be garbage in the North Pacific that came from a mook walking hisher poodle in Sacramento.

 

[Mike B]

Storm sewers

We keep our boat in Baltimore for the winter and after a storm it's amazing to see what's washed into the harbor. The city has a crew that tends to booms located near most of the storm sewer outlets. Additionally they have a couple of dedicated boats that sweep the waters for trash. Anything they can't get with that boat they grab with nets from a flat bottom skiff. In spite of their efforts, 7 days a week, there is still a constant presence of trash in the water. As someone else said it just takes some fool to toss it in the street rather than a trash can or recycle bin and it ends up in our rivers, lakes, etc. Based on what I see we have a lot of fools to educate.

 

[Stillraining]

You cant educate

anyone who could care less about learning. A lot of people just dont care and wont change there littering behaviors. We have to reduce the product availibal to litter.

 

[Paul Brinkley]

Stillraining has the key...

to having less trash. If we make less, there will be less spread around. I know people get tired of hearing older guys saying "back when I was a boy", but when I was, my parents' garbage can could hold a week's worth of trash easily, but would probably hold a third of what my family generates today. Everything is way overpackaged today, for various reasons, such as ADVERTISING, shoplifting prevention, sanitation, convenience, ease of display, etc. If you think about it, we have to pay for all that junk twice: once when we buy the product it contains, and again when we have to pay to dispose of it. Wish there was an easy solution.