Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Altered Oceans: the Crisis at Sea

August 19, 2006

Altered Oceans: the Crisis at Sea

Extensive LA Times series on Altered Oceans: the Crisis at Sea by Kenneth R. Weiss and Usha Lee McFarling. Excellent.

Part 1 (of 5): A Primeval Tide of Toxins “Runoff from modern life is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms. This ‘rise of slime,’ as one scientist calls it, is killing larger species and sickening people”

Part 4: Plague of Plastic Chokes the Seas:

Their flight paths from Midway often take them over what is perhaps the world’s largest dump: a slowly rotating mass of trash-laden water about twice the size of Texas.

This is known as the Eastern Garbage Patch, part of a system of currents called the North Pacific subtropical gyre. Located halfway between San Francisco and Hawaii, the garbage patch is an area of slack winds and sluggish currents where flotsam collects from around the Pacific
…
Nearly 90% of floating marine litter is plastic — supple, durable materials such as polyethylene and polypropylene, Styrofoam, nylon and saran.

About four-fifths of marine trash comes from land, swept by wind or washed by rain off highways and city streets, down streams and rivers, and out to sea.

I have been unable to find a decent photo of this garbage patch - please post a comment if you know of one.

by curiouscat Tags: Life Science, Students
Permalink to: Altered Oceans: the Crisis at Sea Trackback: http://engineering.curiouscatblog.net/2006/08/19/altered-oceans-the-crisis-at-sea/trackback/

4 Responses to “Altered Oceans: the Crisis at Sea”

Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog » Sea Urchin Genome Says:
November 10th, 2006 at 9:54 am
The sea urchin represents the first sequenced genome from the echinoderms, which are the closest known relatives of the chordates, the group that includes vertebrates, animals with spinal columns. The genome includes analogs to many essential human genes that were previously thought to be exclusive to vertebrates…
Arctic Sharks Says:
December 9th, 2006 at 9:13 am
“The Greenland shark typically inhabits the deep, dark waters between Greenland and the polar ice cap…”
CuriousCat: Deep-Sea Alien Abode Discovered Says:
May 18th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
“Recent expeditions have uncloaked this polar region, finding nearly 600 organisms never described before and challenging some assumptions that deep-sea biodiversity is depressed…”
CuriousCat: Vast Garbage Float in the Pacific Ocean Says:
November 5th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
“studying and publicizing the patch for the past 10 years, said the debris - which he estimates weighs 3 million tons and covers an area twice the size of Texas - is made up mostly of fine plastic chips and is impossible to skim out of the ocean…”