Scientists sailing to Great Pacific Garbage Patch
| August 4, 2009 | 12:16 PM
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You could call it the voyage of the canned.
Scientists have set sail from San Francisco to explore the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
I’m not full of trash — it’s true. The patch is a huge vortex of floating plastic and other waste that some researchers estimate to be twice the size of Texas.
Two ships of researchers, organized by the University of California’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the nonprofit group Ocean Voyages Institute, are making a 30-day expedition to the drifting debris field. The garbage patch is currently about 1,000 miles west of California.
The researchers are traveling aboard the tall-masted ship Kaisei, or “ocean planet” in Japanese, and the New Horizon. They hope to learn more about the environmental damage created by the patch as it bobs around the ocean, and whether it might be possible to clean up the mess.
Scientists don’t know when the patch began to form, but they believe that trash washing down storm drains and rivers may contribute to the floating junk yard.
So be careful where you pitch that water bottle, would ya?
Read more at mercurynews.com.
environment, expedition, great pacific garbage patch, ocean, plastic, san francisco, scripps institution of oceanography, texas, vortex, voyage
