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    <title>5 Gyres</title>
    <link>http://5gyres.org</link>
    <description>5 Gyres is dedicated to understanding plastic marine pollution through exploration, education, and action</description>
    <managingEditor>info@5gyres.org (5 Gyres)</managingEditor>
    <generator>REVRSE RSS 2.0 Generator Beta</generator>
    <item>
      <title>Plastic Pollution in the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/09/06/plastic_pollution_in_the_south_atlantic_subtropical_gyre</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Heres the latest from Marcus Eriksen aboard the Sea Dragon - plastic in every single sample collected thus far illustrated above with a shot of trawl 3 a slurry of fish and plastic particles Twelve days from Rio de Janiero sailing out on an eastern tack puts us 
600 miles south of Ascension Island a dot in the middle of the South 
Atlantic closer to Africa than South America nbspWe’ve conducted 18 
trawls of the sea surface since then nbspEvery one contains plastic

This is the first of three expeditions into the South Atlantic 
Subtropical Gyre a counterclockwise rotation of the ocean bounded by 
coastal currents westerly tradewinds and the Southern Ocean nbspIn the 
middle of the gyre winds and waves slow down nbspIt’s where debris 
accumulates nbspNikolai Maximenko of the International Pacific Research 
Center has computed where debris in the ocean might go based on the 
real movements of drifter buoys currently at sea nbspWorking with Nikolai 
to plan our routes our first expedition is taking us through the 
northern edge of the predicted accumulation zone

Out first trawl began 200 miles off the coast of Brazil outside the Exclusive 
Economic Zone EEZ nbspBits of plastic and zooplankton filled the cod end
 of the trawl nbspThe trawl is a 25cm x 60cm box that skims the surface
 nbspThe 333 micron mesh net catches almost everything that passes throughWere nearing the end of our first venture into the South Atlantic Gyre with 2 upcoming expeditionsnbsp that will span the entire ocean - from South America to Africa and back We have now seen plastic pollution in 4 of the worlds 5 subtropical gyres 
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:46:19 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/09/06/plastic_pollution_in_the_south_atlantic_subtropical_gyre</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Ups and Downs of plastic expeditions</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/09/03/the_ups_and_downs_of_plastic_expeditions</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The latest news from the Sea Dragon by crewmember Liana John Environmental Journalist from National Geographic BrasilDay 8
After two days of ups and downs on the waves and on the wind speed Friday September third starts with smooth sailing and a flatter sea By
 230 the waning moon sneaks out of the dark clouds ahead Soon there 
is this horn shape facing up as if a giant bright yellow rhino was 
about to get out of its hide for a dive at the pitch black ocean

With this weird image in mind I untie my small video camera from the 
fast trawler anxious to watch the new images Some days ago we had it 
facing out towards the sea and got some nice footage of the trawler 
perspective Now we tied it facing inward to get the plastics fragments 
coming into the nets But – deception – the camera memory is empty It 
didn’t record anything at all A setting problem I guess Maybe 
tomorrow we’ll get luckier

Dawn comes with more ups and downs on wind speed ranging from 5 to 10 
knots what means some bumping and potential domestic disasters inside 
Not to mention the doubled nbspeffort and all the funny positions in order 
to compensate boat inclination and do common things such as to cook 
take a shower do laundry and just walk around

The sun doesn’t come out the clouds almost all day Trawlers bring less 
and less plastic as we leave behind the concentration zone of the gyre 
Dr Marcus makes the dissection of three lantern fishes caught on day 3 
and – good news – there is no plastic in their stomachs

Before supper we have a very instructive and scientifically based 
demonstration on nautical gym something hybrid in between working out 
and doing yoga by Dr Marcus Gigi Dale and Jose Using nothing but the
 boat movement and quite a bit of dangerous equilibrium they’ve managed
 to exercise arms legs backs and many other muscles in a series of odd
 ups and downs We’re seriously thinking on launching a DVD on this new 
gym wave]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:08:53 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/09/03/the_ups_and_downs_of_plastic_expeditions</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Plastic, myctophids, and ghost nets</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/09/02/plastic_myctophids_and_ghost_nets</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Seadragon crew posing with a ghost net a tangled mass of discarded synthetic fishing line Below a recent account from Marcus mid-Atlantic with seas currently calm enough for a blog entryDay 7 September 2nd 400 am nbsp nbsp nbspOur days have settled into routines
now nbspWe eat little sleep a lot and sit out for cold night watches
Clive and Dale the skipper and first mate alternate 12 hour
shifts nbspThe other nine of us are in three teams taking 4 hour watches
nbspBetween all of this we trawl for plastic
nbsp nbsp nbspWeve been using the high-speed trawl quite a bit Its our new
invention which allows us to collect samples when the sailboat needs
to cover ground at 8-10 knots nbspAlso its ideal for catching foraging
fish like myctophids They cant outrun the net nbsp Years ago we caught
the same fish in the North Pacific and found plastic particles in the
stomachs of 35 of them nbspWell investigate the same phenomenon here
nbspWhat weve learned here is that the net must be pulled up every couple
of hours otherwise the fish get torn up by the turbulence in the net
nbsp nbsp nbspIts now 4am on Day 7 nbspThe small trawl is in the water for an
hour nbsp25 knots of wind all night long has died down to 10-15 After this sort of turbulence were not sure what well find - how do the wind and waves affect the
distribution of plastic in the near surface waters nbspWill the surface
abundance of plastic decrease as we head away from the accumulation
zone and toward Ascension Island nbspThere are many unknowns to exploreIn November well cross the South Atlantic from Rio to Cape Town South Africa Well be looking deeper into the potential human health impacts with Chelsea Rochman aboard a PhD student from UC Davis and San Diego State studying plastics and marine wildlife Applications are still open for potential expedition crew contact us for more information 
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:32:14 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/09/02/plastic_myctophids_and_ghost_nets</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Day 5 in the South Atlantic: plastic everywhere</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/09/02/day_5_in_the_south_atlantic_plastic_everywhere</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Heres the latest from crewmember Dougal from ASR Ltd

Changing tack for the first time after four days of close hauled sailing
 is interesting to say the least The gentle and sometimes not so gentle
 bouncing of the Sea Dragon had comfortably nestled everything into the 
starboard side of the boat but now the sudden change in the heel of the 
boat now to port made for some time spent tidying up But on day five 
everyone on board is feeling fully adjusted to life at sea and the 
memory of stable ground underfoot is becoming distant

Trawling is now underway in earnest and the new high speed trawl is 
allowing for constant sampling of plastic without compromising boat 
speed nbspPlastic fragments and small pieces of monofilament line have 
been abundant in all trawls although the quantity does fluctuate nbspDown 
time between trawl retrievals has left plenty of time for discussion 
about future research directions into quantifying plastic densities 
throughout oceans

What has also really opened my eyes is just how much debris there is at 
sea when you start to look for it Everyone on deck has half an eye open
 for larger pieces of debris and today a hard hat idly drifted by and at
 one point the trawl had to be temporarily stopped after it ensnared a 
large ball of assorted ropes and fishing lines nbspWhen you consider just 
how small an area is observed from the path of Sea Dragon and the 
vastness of the ocean it doesn’t take much mental agility to realize 
just how much plastic pollution is out there

The ocean has not been unkind to us in the last 24 hours however and we 
have had frequent visitations by dolphins breaking the eerily glassy sea
 surface But the real treat came earlier today I was chopping 
vegetables for our midday frugal repast when I was interrupted by shouts
 on deck I stumbled up to the cockpit through the briny film of tears 
what do they put in Brazilian onions just in time to see a huge 
whale tail slapping the sea off the port bow nbspIt breached four more 
times once almost coming completely out of the water For many of us 
including myself it was the first time we had seen a whale and it was 
truly awe inspiring We are still unsure as to the species of the whale 
but if any of you are curious as to what the sea surface looks like 
seconds after a whale has left the scene we have photographic examples 
in abundance

Up until now we have been traveling eastwards from Rio de Janeiro into 
the gyre but today we are beginning to travel northwards towards 
Ascension Island and the northern edge of the gyre there to measure the 
extent of plastic pollution floating within for the first time

Dougal Greer Crew member Sea Dragon]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:01:55 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/09/02/day_5_in_the_south_atlantic_plastic_everywhere</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Trawling for plastic - at 7-10 knots!</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/30/trawling_for_plastic__at_710_knots</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

The latest from Marcus aboard the Sea Dragon

Its now day 3 in the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre There is more plastic in each of the two trawls were using We have a
traditional plankton tow that can be used at 3 knots of speed maximum Since we cant cross the ocean at 3
knots were limited to trawling a couple of hours each day To solve this we built the HI-SPEED
trawl Imagine a miniature model of the Starship Enterprise from the Star Trek TV series It looks like that but with a big
vertical mouth for gulping seawater The beauty of this new design is that it can travel 7-10 knots and still
capture the surface of the ocean without surfing above it or diving below Its our new invention and it works
beautifully Weve deployed it twice Each time its filled with more plastic as we sail deeper into the widening gyre Heres a reminder from our Indian Ocean Gyre expedition of why Captains will love to high speed trawl



We are now in the accumulation zone of the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyre Every trawl is filled with the typical confetti of plastic fragments Its now 1000pm and the hi-speed trawl
will be deployed till sunrise At night we expect to find fish in the net which we will investigate for plastic
ingestion There are 1400 nautical miles and 10 days to go More tomorrow]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 21:39:05 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/30/trawling_for_plastic__at_710_knots</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Queasy in the EEZ: South Atlantic Gyre</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/29/queasy_in_the_eez_south_atlantic_gyre</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

The latest from Marcus on the Sea Dragon those of us on
land are always thrilled to get news Despite almost half the crew flattened by
seasickness it sounds like the mission is well underway 

Christo stands with arms open wide city lights spread
through the valleys and surrounding the coast and jets soaring over our head
as we sail across the end of the runwaynbsp
I dont know what Rio de Janiero was like 300 years ago but it was
nothing like thisnbsp Charles Darwin
reported a large breeding population in the bay when he came here aboard the
Beaglenbsp Aboard the Sea Dragon
there are no such sightingsnbsp The
foul smell of raw sewage in the marina is behind usnbsp A full moon pulls us to sea



The EEZ is the Exclusive Economic Zone that creates a
200-mile boundary from the Brazilian coast that is off limits to our
researchnbsp We cannot test CO2 in
the water collect fish or trawl for plastic debrisnbsp And thats all right by me and most of the crew that takes
turn pouring their stomachs into the seanbsp
20-25 knot winds keeps Clive and Dale the Skipper and First Mate on
their toes and the rest of us on our backsnbsp At mile 217 east of Rio we throw in the trawl

15 hours later we pull up the first scientific trawl for
plastic in the South Atlantic Subtropical Gyrenbsp Among Man-o-war jellyfish and zooplankton theres a
confetti of plasticnbsp Its the same
thing weve seen in the North Pacific North Atlantic and Indian Oceannbsp Gyres collect waste and the 5
subtropical gyres have the highest concentrationsnbsp During the next 12 days well sample during the day and
night to get an idea of the spatial distribution of plastic waste herenbsp The predicted accumulation zone is
south of our present location but well skim the top of the gyre and then head
north to Ascension Island

Ascension Island should be an interesting oasis sitting in between Africa and South
Americanbsp It receives currents coming out of the east rising up from the African coastnbsp Bucky McMahon GQ journalist
adventurer author and diver introduced me to the concept of
Coasteringnbsp Its a
simple idea find an island and walk the coast until youre back where you
startednbsp Ascension Island is
roughly 7 miles in diameter so it will be a 25 mile 2-day hikenbsp I hope we can pull it offnbsp I definitely want to see whats washed
ashore]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:20:22 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/29/queasy_in_the_eez_south_atlantic_gyre</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Blue Ocean Film Festival: Protect what you love</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/28/blue_ocean_film_festival_protect_what_you_love</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Wrapping up the final day of the Blue Ocean Film Festival in Monterey where 5 Gyres was invited to speak on a panel following a screening of Bag It joining Fabien Cousteau Suzan Beraza from REEL Thingnbsp Productions Daniella Russo from the Plastic Pollution Coalition and Ximena Waissbluth from Surfider Foundation This was my second time seeing Bag It and my second panel discussion in less than a week and it was even better the second time around A wonderfully personal look at the plastic pollution issue Includes clips with two 5 Gyres reps - myself and Marcus on the JUNKraft After 3 packed days of tremendous speakers films and conversations with ocean heroes too numerous to count a few key messages stand out Our oceans are in critical condition despite decades of ocean conservationists screaming for change And our best hope for change lies in the next generation Speaker after speaker from Sylvia Earle to Julie Packard to the creators of the IMAX films to the Cousteau family J Nichols Carl Safina and others stressed the importance of educating the next generation about our oceansnbsp Below Jean-Michel Fabien and Celine Cousteau along with Holly Lohuis from Ocean Futures take the stage after a moving film tracing the legacy of Jacques Cousteau whose famous words we protect what we love have never rung truer Im more inspired than ever to return home with a mountain of cards from new friends and fellow ocean advocates and get to work I find myself wondering - if we knew now that in 30 40 or 50 years life as we know it would come grinding to a halt what would we do differently Do we have enough information now to act accordingly We need to make MUCHMORENOISE Now to the Blue Carpet awards ceremony]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:32:04 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/28/blue_ocean_film_festival_protect_what_you_love</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Meet Team Ascension</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/26/meet_team_ascension</link>
      <description><![CDATA[And theyre off This afternoon our intrepid 5 Gyres team set sail for our first venture into the South Atlantic Gyre from Rio to Ascension Island and back Meet the team of sailors scientists journalists and filmmakers aboard the Sea Dragon Well be hearing their stories over the coming weeks with particular interest in Marcuss new high speed trawl which will revolutionize the way we collect our ocean samples This will be the first of 3 expeditions through the South Atlantic Gyre studying plastic pollution the 4th in our global 5 Gyres study Were cheering them on from land]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:58:14 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/26/meet_team_ascension</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>5 Gyres Sets Sail For The First Glimpse Of The South Atlantic Gyre</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/26/5_gyres_sets_sail_for_the_first_glimpse_of_the_south_atlantic_gyre</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Apologies to our loyal readers on being a bit derelict from the blog nbspThe truth is weve been busy as hell preparing for our eight upcoming expeditions nbspBut from here on out expect lots of content and video from areas of the world never before studied for plastic pollution nbspAs I write this one of our directors Dr Marcus Eriksen is casting off from Rio De Janeiro heading to Ascension Island nbspOnce out of Brazilian Waters hell be testing a new high speed trawl which will greatly increase our ability to sample the ocean more efficiently nbspAs of now trawling speed is about 2 knots and the high speed trawl would increase that speed to about 8 hopefully nbspOnboard is an incredible list of international writers activists and film makers including a reporter from GQ magazine nbspThe crew will cast off today after a successful event with our United Nations partner nbspSafe Planet Keep up with blog lots to come nbspStiv]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:56:05 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/08/26/5_gyres_sets_sail_for_the_first_glimpse_of_the_south_atlantic_gyre</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Tapped Movie supports 5 Gyres! </title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/22/tapped_movie_supports_5_gyres_</link>
      <description><![CDATA[If you havent already seen Tapped youre missing out big time Winner of a long list of film festivals Tapped is a phenomenally powerful shocking and engaging film about the bottle water industry scam that I guarantee will leave you rearing to get involved
And now when you buy a DVD of Tapped or order a reusable bottle on their site a donation goes back to 5 Gyres Enter the code 5 Gyres when you purchase on line and 5 for a DVDbottle or 10 for both go towards supporting our upcoming expeditions to the South Atlantic and Pacific Gyres 
Watch the trailer here order a copy organize a screening in your local hood and join a growing movement of people who are refusing single use plastics]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:23:06 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/22/tapped_movie_supports_5_gyres_</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Plastic or zooplankton for lunch?</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/18/plastic_or_zooplankton_for_lunch</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The other week in the lab we saw some images of our North Atlantic Gyre samples under a microscope To the untrained eye the plastic fragments look remarkably similar to the zooplankton Its easy to see how a fish might mistake the two Would you
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Sun, 18 Jul 2010 14:51:13 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/18/plastic_or_zooplankton_for_lunch</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Sponsor A Trawl</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/09/sponsor_a_trawl</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Heres a chance for you your company or your fave local business to get involved in our upcoming expeditions studying plastic pollution in the South Atlantic and South Pacific Gyres 
Or find 4 groups to sponsor a trawl and come on board yourself We have a few spaces left for dedicated crew willing to work play sail and have a once in a lifetime experience while making a difference 
Maybe thats you
nbsp]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:52:05 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/09/sponsor_a_trawl</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Even Groupers need love</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/09/even_groupers_need_love</link>
      <description><![CDATA[This might have so much to do with plastic but came across this clip from Bermuda during our North Atlantic Gyre expedition and had to share

For anyone who doubts that fish might have feelings take a look at this affectionate Grouper who loves being tickled under the chin
nbsp
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 09 Jul 2010 01:04:01 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/09/even_groupers_need_love</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Pro Surfer Chris Malloy: fatherhood in the age of plastic</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/07/pro_surfer_chris_malloy_fatherhood_in_the_age_of_plastic</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
nbsp
Thanks for the interview Chris looking forward to collaborating more on this issue]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 07 Jul 2010 11:00:33 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/07/pro_surfer_chris_malloy_fatherhood_in_the_age_of_plastic</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>82 year old Jean Hill is PISSED!!! about bottled water.</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/06/82_year_old_jean_hill_is_pissed_about_bottled_water</link>
      <description><![CDATA[nbsp
Get Em Jean Were with younbsp]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:24:58 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/06/82_year_old_jean_hill_is_pissed_about_bottled_water</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Fallacy Of Gyre Cleanup: PART ONE, SCALE</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/05/the_fallacy_of_gyre_cleanup_part_one_scale</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Team member Stiv reporting here I will start by saying Im not an oceanographer but I am an investigative journalist by trade and Ive spent the better part of four years researching plastic pollution issues from science to policy nbspWhat Ive learned is that the problem of plastic pollution has very little to do with pure oceanography and much more to do with waste management infrastructure global economicsmarkets polymer chemistry watershed hydrology and countless other disciplines  nbspin short any solution to truly be informed needs to be derived from a multidisciplinary approach
However understanding how gyres work is of utmost important and there are very very few experts out there who can speak credibly to their movements Ive spoken with almost all the experts on how the gyres work most notably Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Nicolai Maximenko advises the 5 Gyres science team what factors affect how they behave and what Ive learned is that gyres are very difficult to read nbsp
What Ive also learned is that the solutions being proposed and applied to the marine plastic epidemic are often anything but scientific nbspAs an activist I can get downright angry about the notion of gyre cleanup and when I see stories in the media about it it often elicits a visceral response from me Obviously this is not a helpful vantage in the grand scheme of things but the motivation for my response is simple nbspselling the idea of gyre cleanup to the public actually makes the problem worse nbspIf a barge full of plastic comes back from the gyre and helicopters take pictures of it and newspaper headlines read gyre cleanup groups first mission to clean plastic from the gyre is successful the ocean is in for a world of hurtnbsp
In the coming weeks I will state my case in parts on the 5 Gyres blog talking about some of the nuances associated with the notion of cleanup nbspWell look at the issue from scale to politics and well attempt to bring some transparency as to which groups are funded at least partially by a plastics industry that fights us tooth and nail on ANY policy which would reduce plastic consumption and what that may or may not mean in with regard to how these groups message to the public nbsp
Well also share some good news nbspyou dont need to go out to the ocean to clean up plastic as the gyres themselves upon each full rotation spit plastic out nbspThe North Pacific Gyre for example takes three years to complete an orbit and dumps roughly 50 of its contents Curtis Ebbesmeyer Flotasmetrics nbspThis flotsam will either wash up on land or go into another gyre nbspAll you need to do to clean the gyres is pick what washes up off the beach and stop it from being thrown in in the first place nbsp
PART ONE THE SCALE OF GLOBAL PLASTIC POLLUTION
If you havent sailed to a garbage patch its very difficult to understand what they look like and how big they actually are Contrary to popular media they are not a floating island the size of Texas Theyre incredibly diffuse and plastic pollution is everywhere in the ocean not just in the gyres Gyres simply concentrates it Sailing across the North Atlantic taught me something that all oceanographers know but dont necessarily say nbspthe ocean is BIG and running the numbers on how much garbage is out there is an extremely difficult task because the scale itself is hard to noodle on nbsp
According to one ofnbspSEAs leading researchers Giora Proskurowski plastic is extremely diffuse and calculating its density is very difficult nbspIf we were to attempt to quantify how much is out there we need to do some big math Gioras data states that concentration in The Atlantic gyre is about 50000 1g pieces per square kilometer on the surface nbspIf we apply big math to that simply for the sake of getting an idea of scale we get nbsp5 kilograms per square kilometer or roughly 11 pounds per square kilometer on the surface There are 316 million square kilometers of ocean surface nbspThis makes for about 35 billion pounds of degraded plastic fragments fewer than 5mm in length on the surface of the ocean worldwide nbspAgain this is an extremely conservative estimate extrapolating from a local data set to show the scale in the world Gioras work for example shows that plastic doesnt just exist on the surface it gets stratified within the water column close to 90 feet down not to mention all the types of plastic that sink too which is about half of the types manufactured This estimate doesnt include all the big pieces you find in various garbage patches within the gyres but well leave that weight out for now nbsp
So for the purposes of argument lets say that for each of those 90 feet of stratification there is roughly the same weight per foot nbspNow were up to 315 billion pounds in the oceannbspFor comparison The Gulf Spill is spewing roughly 25 million pounds of oil per day nbsp
COST OF CLEANUP HYPOTHETICAL
A supertankers dead weight amount of weight it can carry is 500 million pounds That would mean that to clean the ocean youd need to fill 630 oil supertankers to the brim at a cost of about 56000 per each a day to charter United Nations Conference on Trade and Development nbspSo to cleanup the gyres assuming there is actually technology out there to do it which as of today nothing has been proven to work were looking at a cost of at least about 35 million a day or roughly 13 billion a year and about 17 of all the oil tankers in service in the world would have to be full time devoted to cleaning it upnbsp
Again these numbers here are as conservative as I can get across all spectrums nbsp
SCALE OF A WASTE STREAM
Now lets talk about the scale of waste nbspAs of 1992 the world 55 billion people which today has grown to 7 billion dumped 14 billion pounds of garbage in the ocean each year over half at least is synthetics if we apply this statistic over 40 years  the plastics era in the limelight  we get a very similar number to the 315 billion pound number stated before of overall plastics in the oceannbspWorldwide were looking at 1-3 recycling rates on plastic a number based on an industry that is governed by supply and demand The plastics industry produces 250 billion pounds of virgin raw plastic pellets per yearnbspOkay so now we at least have an some idea of what were dealing with nbsp
One Americans garbage in the ocean footprint is about 600 as of 1992 pounds annually if you want to know precisely what your plastics in the ocean footprint is do a simple experiment throw all your waste in the same bin for a week nbspSeparate organic materials and synthetics Determine the percentage of synthetics and apply that percentage to that 600 pound number and youll know roughly how much damage your lifestyle causes on the ocean in terms of weightnbsp
CONCLUSIONS
Yes its bad and its overwhelming and its getting worse fast nbspJust to stop how much we contribute as a world annually wed need 14 full time oil tankers operating everyday at a cost of roughly 286 million annually  nbspouch nbspScale yes its a a crazy amount to even comprehend and even if the problem was 110th of what we stated here were still dealing with degrees of scale much larger than cleanup technology allows nbspIn short the plastic needs to stop going into the ocean in the first place and thats where gyre cleanup efforts should be focused if well intentioned people are meaning to take meaningful action nbsp
Stay tuned to the blog as Ill investigate this issue more deeply throughout the next few weeks nbsp
nbsp]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 05 Jul 2010 13:16:47 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/05/the_fallacy_of_gyre_cleanup_part_one_scale</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The 5 Guys Institute</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/02/the_5_guys_institute</link>
      <description><![CDATA[We received a letter yesterday from the IRS informing us that our tax exempt status has been filed There seems to have been a slight mistake though
nbspIm wondering what our new mission statement for The 5 GUYS Institute will be Wed certainly get more girls involved and maybe have some fun parties Heres a vision of the The 5 Guys Project - Leslie and I with a group of divers in the Azores Our new mascots

nbsp
nbsp]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:04:58 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/02/the_5_guys_institute</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Mississippi River Watershed</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/02/mississippi_river_watershed</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Waste to Waves our watersheds bring plastic pollution from the highest mountains and the most remote deserts to the middle of the 5 subtropical gyres of the worldnbsp It all blows and flows downhillnbsp The 5 subtropical gyres are downhill from everywhere
Check out 5 Gyres 
on the National Geographic Channel tomorrow night July 3  7-10pm ET to watch Mississippi River Quest a journey down the Mississippi River from the beginning at Lake Itasca Minnesota 2300 miles to the Gulf of Mexiconbsp ]]></description>
      <author>marcuseriksen@hotmail.com (Marcus Eriksen)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:07:38 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/07/02/mississippi_river_watershed</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Creative Uses for Gyre Trash </title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/30/creative_uses_for_gyre_trash_</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Swedish home appliance manufacturer Electrolux has found a use for the plastic trash that proliferates our oceans The new Vac from the Sea project aims to cull plastic from several collection zones and create concept vacuum cleaners to bring attention to the colossal marine pollution problemnbsp
While we may have doubts as to the viability of this idea as a way to utilize the plastic trash to create a sustainable product or to clean up the gyres an endeavor which has proven to be inexecutable at best and dangerously misleading to the public as well as overly conciliatory to the plastics industry at worst we have to give them kudos for creative problem-solving   they are helping to raise awareness of one of the biggest environmental threats of our timenbsp
Nice work Electrolux

5 Gyres photo in Discovery News
nbsp
nbsp
nbsp
nbsp]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:36:30 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/30/creative_uses_for_gyre_trash_</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>SHOCKER!!! American Chemistry Council finds that reusable bags get dirty over time.</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/24/shocker_american_chemistry_council_finds_that_reusable_bags_get_dirty_over_time</link>
      <description><![CDATA[nbsp

Guess what nbspIn order to add drama to Californias proposed state wide plastic bag ban the good folks over at the ACC have unearthed a startling revelation nbspDirty reusable bags are in fact dirty nbspThat means if you dont wash your reusable bag from time to time its going to get dirty Just like your underwear or your socks do if you dont wash them nbspWeve seen the ACC do some pretty dumb things over the years trying to justify their contribution to the global marine eco-disaster that is plastic pollution in the ocean but this one takes the cake Whats next Reminding us that cream will curdle in your reusable coffee cup if left in the sun nbspThanks ACC good job keeping us safe nbspRead the full story here nbsp nbsp]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 24 Jun 2010 12:24:46 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/24/shocker_american_chemistry_council_finds_that_reusable_bags_get_dirty_over_time</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Discovery News Coverage of 5 Gyres Atlantic Expedition</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/21/discovery_news_coverage_of_5_gyres_atlantic_expedition</link>
      <description></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:45:13 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/21/discovery_news_coverage_of_5_gyres_atlantic_expedition</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>This Is What A Garbage Patch Looks Like: A short film from the 5 Gyres North Atlantic Expedition. </title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/18/this_is_what_a_garbage_patch_looks_like_a_short_film_from_the_5_gyres_north_atlantic_expedition_</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Team member Stiv reporting here Im not a pro film maker but I was able to put a bit of footage together that I shot on our expedition in January and February of this year nbspIt captures a bit of the essence of what its like to sail the ocean searching for plastic

nbsp]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jun 2010 08:05:22 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/18/this_is_what_a_garbage_patch_looks_like_a_short_film_from_the_5_gyres_north_atlantic_expedition_</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Powerful graphic on plastic in the food chain</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/16/powerful_graphic_on_plastic_in_the_food_chain</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Thanks to our new friends at Dentsu America for this amazing graphic beautifully illustrating the concept of bio accumulation In short tiny fish eats plastic particles bigger fish eats many smaller fish Octopus eats bigger fish we eat Octopus or Tuna or Mahi Mahi  
Now whats ending up on our dinner plate This is one of the big questions 
We gave a presentation at Dentsu the other month invited by Jesse Nicely a business savvy designerbrand strategist who has been following the plastics issuenbsp After popping in last week to brainstorm with him his inspired co-worked Kim Linn designed this graphic Were excited to formulating some projects with Jesse and the Dentsu team that focus on realistic solutions for businesses that use plastics Helping these businesses make the right choice will go a long way towards solving this issue on land Thanks Dentsu
nbsp]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:10:53 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/16/powerful_graphic_on_plastic_in_the_food_chain</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Generating Power From The Gyres? Yup, It's Called Plasma.</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/15/generating_power_from_the_gyres_yup_its_called_plasma</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

By Dr Marcus Eriksen cofounder The 5 Gyres Institute

Stand on any island in the 5 Gyres and youll see the plastic come to you First a bottle cap a cigarette lighter maybe even a fishing buoy washing up among millions of tiny fragments of plastic confettinbsp If you want to get plastic out of the 5 gyres islands are the natural nets to capture plastic with no need for ships no carbon footprint no damage to marine life in the process just a steady stream of fuel coming your way nbspContrary to popular belief the gyres do kick it out and the islands catch it
Whats thatnbsp Did I say fuel nbspYES 8 of a barrel of oil is plastic 4 is the raw material and 4 the energy required to polymerize the stuffnbsp Polyethylene and polypropylene wash up in heaping piles on the Hawaiian Islands Bermuda and the Azores in the North Atlantic Mauritius in the Indian Ocean St Helena and Ascencion Island in the S Atlantic and dozens more islands in the S Pacificnbspnbsp
But what can you do with all that plasticnbsp PlasmanbspWe visited Pyrogenesis in Montreal Canada recently to learn about waste to energy from plastic pollutionnbsp It can burn anything from circuit boards to fish bones and certainly all that plastic washed up on beaches they explained to usnbsp How about a dead housecat I askednbsp Sure Im sure that would work he answered with a chucklenbsp Imagine a device that shreds waste and passes it through a lightening bolt using the exhaust gasses produced to power engines to run the machinenbsp As long as you can feed it plastic it produces more power than it needs to run itselfnbsp Net positive power no dioxins or furans produced less need to import fossil fuels to make energy less landfill space occupied and cleaner beaches
Okay this works as a viable post-consumer plannbsp We know the real solutions are source reduction not treating symptomsnbsp But with estimates of 3-5 million tons of plastic pollution in the worlds oceans there must be a plan to deal with the waste we have while we turn off the tap]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jun 2010 15:06:46 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/15/generating_power_from_the_gyres_yup_its_called_plasma</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Kids join in with their pens and voices</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/11/kids_join_in_with_their_pens_and_voices</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
   
Anyone whos feeling down in the dumps about our planetary prospects should spend more time with kids This morning we finished up our 25th school visit in 6 months visiting over 5000 students around Los Angeles These kids get it especially when they learn about how marine animals are harmed by plastic trash 
Earlier this week we met a remarkable young 9 year old from La Ballona Elementary - Devin Newman who is clearly an emerging poet She whipped out 2 poems for us during our visit printed them on the spot and handed them to us as we walked out These are the kinds of moments that keep us goingthank you Devin Well be keeping tabs on this future leader Here are 2 of her many many poems - we have a feeling there are more to come 
nbsp
OUR PLANET EARTH nbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp HELP OUR PLANET
If we work togethernbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp What Im sayingAnd don’t make a fussnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Is not fantasticWe’ll make Earth healthynbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Fish in the oceanAnd she’ll protect usnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Are eating plasticNow we bring our own bagsnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Trash and garbage in the seaAnd we recycle our wastenbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Why couldnt all of this We were sticking togethernbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Have happened to meLike bricks on pastenbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp I will ask all of you We save energynbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp How you wouldve feltAnd we do the three R’snbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp In an arctic thatsAnd we take bikes to schoolnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Beginning to meltInstead of driving in carsnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Lots and lots of angry mobsDon’t turn up the heatnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Are swarmingYou know you can do betternbspnbsp nbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp Because of the cause of global warming
So grab a blanketOr wear a sweaternbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbspnbsp It is causingA lot of commotionWhen trash and plasticIs in the ocean
 
nbsp - Devin Newman age 9]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:02:09 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/11/kids_join_in_with_their_pens_and_voices</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Gyre Cleanup? It Starts With What The Gyre Spits Out</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/11/gyre_cleanup_it_starts_with_what_the_gyre_spits_out</link>
      <description><![CDATA[



Louis Hoock aka Captain Hook has launched his 10000 mile trip to clean the gyres by focusing on beach cleanup As he says Gyre cleanup is impractical by going to the gyresnbsp You will spend less time and money smaller carbon footprint and not kill marine life if you go to the islands and let the plastic come to you
Captain Hook has launched an effort to sail 10000 miles on the West Coast to cleanup plastic garbage and 5 Gyres let him a Manta Trawl to collect samples as he goes nbspNice work Captain Hoock were interested in seeing the cost per pound for beach recovery vs gyre recovery Bon voyage
nbsp

nbsp
nbsp
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:28:33 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/11/gyre_cleanup_it_starts_with_what_the_gyre_spits_out</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Small East Coast Grocery Chain to Ban Bottled Water in Stores</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/08/small_east_coast_grocery_chain_to_ban_bottled_water_in_stores</link>
      <description><![CDATA[


Inspired by the movie “Addicted to Plastic” a six-store grocery chain on the east coast is banning the sale of bottled water in their stores installing in-store water filtration systems and eliminating unnecessarily-bagged produce nbspnbsp

“Societies are truly addicted to plastic much in the way we are addicted to oil” said Scott Nash founder and CEO of Rockville Md-based MOM’s “The tragic part of our addiction is that by and large petroleum-based plastics are not necessary for consumer products and packaging as we have the technology and innovation to use plastic products that biodegrade”
nbspClick here for the full story]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:27:38 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/06/08/small_east_coast_grocery_chain_to_ban_bottled_water_in_stores</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Taina, You Rule: The Canadian Plastic Warrior.</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/29/taina_you_rule_the_canadian_plastic_warrior</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Stop Plastic Motion from Taina Uitto on Vimeo nbsp]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 May 2010 18:46:28 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/29/taina_you_rule_the_canadian_plastic_warrior</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Lesser Of Two Evils</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/29/the_lesser_of_two_evils</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

I love this photo  nbspcovering oneself in petroleum products to pick up petroleum products on a beach to ensure that the organic crude is hermetically sealed in polyethylene in a landfill When will tragedy finally lead to wisdom and then wisdom to solution nbsp]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 May 2010 12:52:17 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/29/the_lesser_of_two_evils</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Ban The Bag</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/20/ban_the_bag</link>
      <description><![CDATA[A little viral video we did for Surfriders Rise Above Plastics Ban The Bag campaignnbsp
nbsp
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 20 May 2010 14:11:49 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/20/ban_the_bag</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A Tale of Two Oil Spills</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/20/a_tale_of_two_oil_spills</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

Three days ago we walked the Mississippi Gulf Coast watching two devastating petroleum spills washing up on the beach Weve all heard of the one The second oil spill isnt immediately obvious but far more widespread and equally deadly]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 20 May 2010 09:25:02 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/20/a_tale_of_two_oil_spills</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Most Shocking Plastic Pollution Video You've Ever Seen</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/18/the_most_shocking_plastic_pollution_video_youve_ever_seen</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Thanks to plastic warrior Scott Harrison of the Surfrider Foundations San Diego Chapter for Sharing
nbsp
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 18 May 2010 14:55:10 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/18/the_most_shocking_plastic_pollution_video_youve_ever_seen</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Even Worse than BPA?</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/16/even_worse_than_bpa</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

Another dangerous chemical found in plastic   bisphenol AF – might be even an more potent estrogen-mimicker than BPA nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp

Deemed “a vicious compound bisphenol A’s newly-identfied twin is raising strong health concerns

Link to article in Science News
]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Sun, 16 May 2010 11:24:34 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/16/even_worse_than_bpa</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>80% of Marine Debris Comes from Land-Based Sources</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/15/80_of_marine_debris_comes_from_landbased_sources</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Most land-based debris is conveyed to oceans via urban runoff
through storm drains The main sources of plastic and other types of
anthropogenic human-made debris in urban runoff include litter
mostly bags packaging and single-use disposable products industrial
discharges garbage transportation landfills construction debris and
debris from commercial establishments and public venues
From plasticdebrisorg a project of Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the California Coastal Commission 80 of marine debris comes from land-based sources Faris J and Hart K Seas of Debris A Summary of the Third International Conference on Marine Debris NC Sea Grant College Program and NOAA 1994 title page]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 15 May 2010 01:47:23 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/15/80_of_marine_debris_comes_from_landbased_sources</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Indian Beach, Ecola State Park OR</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/13/indian_beach_ecola_state_park_or</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The drive to Indian Beach in Ecola State Park has got to be one of the best beach drives in the entire state of Oregon Sitka Spruce tower overhead as you meander along a shaded road through a dense coastal forest and lead you to a breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean As this is a rock beach there are many places for marine debris to get lodged Needless to say we found a lot of plastic Unfortunately the beach-combing expedition was cut short and I was not able to collect or photograph as much as I would have liked but among the items found were abundant bottle caps plastic fragments fishing rope and oyster spacers from Japan
]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 13 May 2010 02:17:29 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/13/indian_beach_ecola_state_park_or</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>99 Gyreballoons</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/11/99_gyreballoons</link>
      <description><![CDATA[





This balloon was found washed ashore at 3 Mile Beach CA





One of the more ubiquitous marine debris items is the balloon with
curly-cue ribbons trailing behind usually densely intermingled with seaweed nbspI used to wonder what happened to released balloons
once they left the fingertips of a birthday kid whose grip loosened or at the
end of a celebration when the strings were cut and balloons were emancipated to
the skies Now that I’ve been looking I see that they often end up in our seas
and eventually are brought back to our shores to show us where they’ve been Aside from deadly entanglement issues marine animals like sea
turtles wind up mistaking floating balloons for squid and ingesting them There
have been many accounts of marine animals   
dolphins
whales sea turtles fish and seabirds - sea turtles swallowing balloons Balloons are usually found washed up singularly but occasionally
form twisted aggregations Ribbons made of plastic used to tie balloons can pose more
of a problem than the balloons which can be made of natural latex 
nbsp
Balloons make their way around the gyre just as any other piece of
plastic would – there is no way to know the when and where of this balloon’s
origins but you can see from the accumulation of barnacles and algae that it
has made its rounds through and possibly across the ocean For every downed
balloon you see on a beach you can assume there are many many more waiting to
be ingested by sea life or washed ashore 

 
The following information is from Clean Ocean Action

Dr Peter Lutz noted sea turtle biologist in Florida published
a study in 1990 on the ingestion of latex balloon pieces by sea turtlesDr Lutz study found 


1 When offered a mix of pieces of clear plastic and brightly colored latex
the turtles showed a strong preference for the latex pieces over the plastic 
2 In experiments with latex only sea turtles demonstrated that if
their appetite is sufficient they will actively swim towards and ingest latex
materials that all colors are acceptable and that the amount ingested will
depend on their nutritional state 
3 The length of time that the latex remained in the turtles
intestinal tract ranged from a few days to four months with a peak time period
of eight weeks Note the normal gut passage time in sea turtles is approx 10
days 
4 Turtles passed multiple pieces bound together although they had
ingested the individual pieces at different times showing the possible
cumulative effect of ingestion of latex balloon pieces 
Evidence of Impacts Scientists who work with stranded whales
dolphins seals and sea turtles have been looking at the stomach contents of
these dead marine animals These scientists have found balloons parts of
balloons and balloon string during numerous necropsies 




Releasing balloons into the air is littering and ultimately the
balloons will return to earth The balloon industry claims that balloons
explode in many tiny harmless fragments when they reach a certain altitude
Beach Sweep data refutes this claim Over 32000 balloons were picked-up on
beaches during the 1999 cleanup - clear evidence that many return to earth
intact]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 11 May 2010 01:36:10 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/11/99_gyreballoons</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Price Of Plastic: It's More Than The Gulf Spill</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/10/the_price_of_plastic_its_more_than_the_gulf_spill</link>
      <description><![CDATA[nbsp



About a week ago I had the honor of interviewing Curtis Ebbesmeyer famed oceanographer gyre researcher and author of the great book Flotsametrics nbspCurts work on the behavior of the subtropical oceanic gyres in our world has been invaluable and much of what we know about them is because of his worknbsp
As a side note to the interview I mentioned the gulf catastrophe were currently enduring and how the ocean is faced with many and sundry threats nbspCurt made a remark that nearly floored me nbspThe media has been frenzied over the gulf and for good reason but what is its true environmental impact if you scale it compared to others nbspAs Curt said Oil is organic it will go away plastic never goes away and kills more animals every year than any oil spill nbspNow understand that Curt is by no means insensitive to the horror facing the south or the economic impact on the fisherman and ocean based industries nbspHis comment was much more academic coming from a career oceanographer with his science hat on But still even after personally having been to the Atlantic Gyre crossing some 3000 miles of ocean nbspI hadnt realized the degree of scale were talking about with plastic pollution Truly its difficult to comprehend nbsp
One of our founders at The 5 Gyre Project Dr Marcus Eriksen has been defined by a life surrounded by oil  hes been a plastic pollution activist for over a decade and saw firsthand the economy of oil as a First Gulf War Veteran nbsp
Arguably all our lives are defined by oil  we litter it in the form of plastic we burn it in the form of gasoline and its the base of the global economy nbspMaybe its high time that the worlds governments and industry start portraying plastic in our oceans in the detrimental terms they use to describe oil spills nbspMaybe its time that we as a society come to fundamental grips with our consumer conveniences impact on our oceansnbspEveryday every bottle cap into the ocean is like a constant disaster sized oil spill pouring out of from the ocean floor Lets turn off the plastic spigotnbspIn terms of the environmental impact the product you buy isnt whats in the plastic bottle its the plastic bottle itself nbsp
nbsp
nbsp
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 10 May 2010 17:09:31 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/10/the_price_of_plastic_its_more_than_the_gulf_spill</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Dumb and Dumber</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/09/dumb_and_dumber</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Using non-biodegradable plastic to manufacture Throw Away products is dumb and results in trashed oceansnbsp Recently at the California Water and the Environment Association annual conference in Sacramento the 5 Gyres team gave a keynote address about plastic marine pollution collected from the centers of three subtropical gyres North Pacific gyre North Atlantic Gyre Indian Ocean Gyrenbsp


On the flight home the Sky Mall catalog of amusing products listed a must have item for every household - an underwater pogo sticknbsp Its an example of another product made from plastic but with no post-consumer plan for recovery and use of the material its made fromnbsp Thats dumber

nbsp

nbsp]]></description>
      <author>marcuseriksen@hotmail.com (Marcus Eriksen)</author>
      <pubDate>Sun, 09 May 2010 17:56:01 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/09/dumb_and_dumber</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Gaviota State Beach, CA</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/08/gaviota_state_beach_ca</link>
      <description><![CDATA[





Gaviota State Beach is a small cove beach and was completely
empty when I visited late in the afternoon threatening rain and sopping from the
last storm earlier that day A good deal of drift wood and seaweed both of
which act as a net for marine debris made for easy collection of 39 bottle
caps remnants and ribbon from two balloons two lighters two shotgun shells
two small plastic bottles one mayonnaise packet several cap rings a disposable
plastic flosser a rubber ball part of a Tupperware lid leaves from a plastic
rose a brush handle a wing from a plastic bat a mold for making Oreo cookies
out of Playdoh the top of a bleach bottle a wedge of a Styrofoam plate a red
straw a toy hippo several plastic bottle cap rings a lid from a plastic tub
two pieces of a Styrofoam 7-11 coffee cup and a good deal of miscellaneous
plastic bits and piecesnbsp ]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 08 May 2010 00:48:59 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/08/gaviota_state_beach_ca</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Concord Mass. Bans Bottled Water Starting 2011</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/06/concord_mass_bans_bottled_water_starting_2011</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Wow this policy is the first of its kind as far as weve heard of nbspHave any of our readers heard about this happening elsewhere nbspPlease comment nbspCheck full storynbsphere
nbsp]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 06 May 2010 12:23:38 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/06/concord_mass_bans_bottled_water_starting_2011</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>El Capitan State Beach, CA</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/05/el_capitan_state_beach_ca</link>
      <description><![CDATA[





El Capitan State Beach situated directly on the coast away
from a bay protected area is a rocks-not-sand-beach and is a prime collection
zone for marine debris from the North Pacific I cobbled along the rocky shore in
less than an hour easily filled my cloth shopping bag with a Magic Bubbles
bottle a baby bottle a bucket handle several pens the handle of a toy
shovel one intact shovel part of a tire a third of a Frisbee two flip-flops
unmatched pair boo part of a milk crate three lighters half of a
Styrofoam plate plastic sheeting a gas cap two small plastic bottles a clip
for animal tagging a spray cap a plastic lever some rubber strips a pair of
sunglasses two broken combs very many bottle caps and as always a good
amount of miscellaneous consumer and industrial plastic parts ]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 05 May 2010 00:47:42 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/05/el_capitan_state_beach_ca</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Creatures from the deep: Atlantic fish samples</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/03/creatures_from_the_deep_atlantic_fish_samples</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Last week Marcus and I stopped into the lab to see how our North
Atlantic Gyre samples are coming along Tremendous progress The Algalita crew were hard at
work - processing samples and identifying fish - we had upwards of 100 specimens 7-8 different species some beauties
We both remembered this one well - a deep sea fish with ferocious fangs Frightening if it werent 2 inches long




While we were there I begged Christiana to dissect a few fish - she was more than happy to oblige Once all the fish are sorted she will carefully open each stomach studying the contents for plastic ingestion Stay tuned for the results

]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 03 May 2010 03:24:08 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/03/creatures_from_the_deep_atlantic_fish_samples</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Semi-Protected Beaches in the Monterey Bay: Santa Cruz CA</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/01/semiprotected_beaches_in_the_monterey_bay_santa_cruz_ca</link>
      <description><![CDATA[



 This post is part of a multi-part series see subsequent and preceding posts   I have been photo-documenting and collecting plastic beach debris during the 5 Gyres outreach tour along the US West Coast and into BC Canada In total this will be a pictographic story of the coast through my eyes Enjoy


Seabright Beach Santa Cruz CA
Since I lived in Santa Cruz for seven years I was eager to take
a new look at what the beaches actually looked like through a plastic trash-mongering
lens I was happy to see that at the time of my visit the beaches were relatively
clean Trash is kept away from the beaches to some extent  because the region is positioned
inside Monterey Bay and the debris from the North Pacific cannot easily find
its way to them 




3 Mile Beach Santa Cruz CA
While still relatively uncontaminated because of their
position along the coast the beaches up the coast have less traffic than the
beaches in town and thus disappointingly had more plastic washed ashore that
hadn’t been whisked away by beachgoers nbspOn
3 Mile Beach where I used to take my dog to play in the sand dunes until I almost got
a ticket from the Park Rangers 3 Mile Beach is part of Wilder Ranch State Park
where dogs are not allowed I found the usual suspects big chunks of
Styrofoam miscellaneous heavy industrial-type plastic tubing bottle caps lighters
plastic water bottles plastic bags and remains of freed birthday balloons]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 01 May 2010 00:37:34 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/05/01/semiprotected_beaches_in_the_monterey_bay_santa_cruz_ca</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Squeezit Makes a Comeback in Cayucos, CA</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/30/squeezit_makes_a_comeback_in_cayucos_ca</link>
      <description><![CDATA[





Cayucos Pier Cayucos State Beach CA 
Thank you dearly to Serena and Melia who thoughtfully helped
me with this debris collectionbeach cleanup It’s always nice when you can
convince your friends to pick up cigarette butts and used dental floss with
you nbspFor whatever reason I hesitate to
give CA State Parks too much credit here this beach was in relatively good
shape when it came to plastic debris The three of us walked half the beach for
around an hour and came up with in total ten chunks of Styrofoam two
shotgun shells three bottle caps one tube of lip gloss and one tube of chap
stick one energy drink bottle a fifth of a Styrofoam plate packaging for
crackers a plastic bucket handle one plastic knife a plastic spoon handle a
2-oz condiment cup a toy shovel a preservative packet several cigarette
butts dental floss a fishing lure a 1-oz vodka bottle plastic twine plastic-coated wire a candy wrapper
some small parts to plastic toys I couldn’t recognize part of a chips bag an abundant
amount of plastic straws and a handful of miscellaneous plastic bits In addition we found the twist-off top to a Squeezit juice drink remember those which interestingly enough have not been produced since 2001 Might sound like quite a lot but stay tuned for upcoming posts to see what a terrible bring-down truly trashy beaches can be 





 ]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:21:29 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/30/squeezit_makes_a_comeback_in_cayucos_ca</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>20th Century Fossils</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/28/20th_century_fossils</link>
      <description><![CDATA[







Glass Beach in Fort Bragg CA is an extraordinary example of the
evolution of our American throwaway culture This unusual beach was used as the
city landfill from 1941-1967 at which point the area was closed by the Water
Quality Board and the landfill was relocated Since household consumer goods
were sold mostly in glass and tin and later steel containers until the
second half of the century when plastics slowly entered the disposable
packaging scene what’s left of the landfill is almost exclusively glass
remnants the tin and steel has presumably eroded away When consumer plastic
was introduced to the hardworking and time-pressed families of the 1950s after
the end of WWII the plastics industry experienced an enormous post-war boom in
consumer products which benefited from the new techniques developed out of
necessity during the war 
nbsp
Being the garbage
archeo-anthropologist I’ve found myself to be I knew I’d find this place
fascinating 
nbsp
It’s hard to imagine a landfill not
filled with plastic but since household garbage wasn’t dumped here much after
1967 the beach theoretically should be almost plastic-free However the area
around Glass Beach was used as an automotive and industrial landfill until
1973 and 1967 when the landfill was restricted to automotive and industrial
use was just around the time when disposable plastics became a mainstay in
American households I wondered if I might find a vestige of the beginnings of our
throwaway plastic lifestyle here
nbsp
The beach was glimmering at first sight – the beach stones and sand are
bejeweled with translucent amber green and blue glass worn smooth from the
tides I scooped up big handfuls of these little gemstones of our past and if
I looked hard enough saw small scraps of tin and steel 
nbsp
I explored further back against the cliffs and after a good deal of searching
came back with some larger pieces of tin and steel a scrap of copper the
unsafe end of a metal safety pin a pop-top from a soda can and the following
pieces of plastic four partial bottle caps one intact bottle cap one electrical
outlet cover one partial and one intact spark plug one small wheel-type
object and 12 unidentifiable automotive or industrial plastic pieces As you
can see the use of plastic for household consumer goods was very limited at
this point and is reflected in what remains of the waste stream history


Before we left Stiv and Stephen called me over to the rocky water’s
edge with a remarkable discovery bits and pieces of automotive waste
were embedded directly into the rock Innumerable white plastic spark plugs
copper coils nuts and bolts had become part of the surrounding natural landscape
of the beach 
nbsp
It felt like we had found the first 20th century fossils


You can see from this photo how
time has corroded or maintained the different materials in use at the time Plastic
may wear down but ultimately does not go away Glass made of silica breaks
into pieces and wears into smooth small pieces The various metals can oxidize
and crumble or bend and break into smaller pieces All of these materials
however are inert – meaning not chemically reactive   except plastic which
even time cannot decay 






]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:50:11 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/28/20th_century_fossils</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Patrick's Point, CA</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/26/patricks_point_ca</link>
      <description><![CDATA[





Patricks’s Point is in Northern CA on the CA 1 We stopped
to camp amongst the redwoods and walked down to the beach at sunset to walk our
dog collect and photograph beach trash There was almost as much plastic as
driftwood   we gathered so much we weren’t able to carry it all and ended up
with little piles along the shore Here’s a quick picture of what we amassed in
about an hour Some of the most interesting pieces found were a toy spinning
top from the Seoul South Korea Olympic games in 1988 a pair of kids’
sunglasses that once were bright blue and missing their lenses and the bottom
half of a toy figurine 




Of what we collected at Patricks’s Point this is all that
our limited storage space in the bus allowed us to bring back Among the
selection is six shotgun shells three toothbrushes 14 bottle caps eight
oyster spacers a paint brush handle two detergent bottles a spray paint cap
a lump of melted plastic a margarine tub and an umbrella handle Many of these
pieces have Japanese characters on them
It is intriguing to speculate about when and where the
detritus washed ashore comes from along the CA and OR Pacific Coast we see a
lot of South Asian junk mostly from Japan China and Korea There’s no way to
tell how long it’s been in the ocean but we can reference Nikolai Maximenko’s drift buoy data which can approximate transit time across oceans Some
plastic however gets trapped in the gyres for a great deal longer than
expected – it’s hard to imagine the extent of the plastic journey until we find
something like the Korean toy top that’s likely been in the ocean for 22 years

]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:45:01 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/26/patricks_point_ca</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>School House Beach</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/26/school_house_beach</link>
      <description><![CDATA[








From the San Francisco Bay heading north along the stunning
CA highway 1 on our JUNKbus tour one of the first places we stopped was a
small beach in Bodega Bay quaintly called School House Beach which had
some of the loveliest beach rocks we’d ever seen On this small beach we
collected a coat hanger a toy horn a popsicle handle a flip-flop a
glow-stick several bottle caps and some unidentifiable chunks of industrial
and household plastic






]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 26 Apr 2010 11:26:06 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/26/school_house_beach</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>5 Gyres in New York</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/21/5_gyres_in_new_york</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The 5 Gyres team recently spent a weekend in New York City to share our North Atlantic Gyre findings with visitors to the American Museumnbsp Leslie Moyer Stiv Wilson and Marcus Eriksen brought plastic from Albatross bellies ghost fishing nets and plenty of plastic from the recent expedition across the Sargasso Sea to shownbspnbsp 
This is what we need to do to build public awareness about the global scope of the problem and begin implementing solutions to stop further harm to our oceans]]></description>
      <author>marcuseriksen@hotmail.com (Marcus Eriksen)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:12:09 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/21/5_gyres_in_new_york</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Why we love the Flying Dutchman</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/19/why_we_love_the_flying_dutchman</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Flying Dutchman is the much celebrated high-speed trawl Marcus and Johann - the Stad Amsterdams boatswain - fashioned at sea capable of collecting ocean samples at 10 knots vs the usual 15- 3 knots we generally need to trawl at Why are we so excited about it This video says it all
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:53:21 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/19/why_we_love_the_flying_dutchman</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>5 Gyres in the News!</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/16/5_gyres_in_the_news</link>
      <description><![CDATA[nbsp

The North Atlantic Garbage Patch made it to mainstream audiences in the past two days via an AP article that has been re-posted across the web and in several print articles including the San Francisco ChronicleSF Gate Anna is quoted as saying our job now is to let people know that plastic ocean pollution is a
global problem — it unfortunately is not confined to a single patch 
Additionally never-before published photographs appeared as a slide show today on the front page of the Huffington Post Photos include shots of the Sea Dragon in the North Atlantic Gyre contents of the manta trawl crew in action collecting marine debris from the deck of the boat and a collection of plastic marine debris collected along the expedition]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 16 Apr 2010 12:40:14 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/16/5_gyres_in_the_news</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>What do we do with all this Plastic Soup</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/15/what_do_we_do_with_all_this_plastic_soup</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The 5 Gyres Project will have visited all 5 Gyres soonnbsp Were collecting samples of plastic pollution from around the world and sharing them with the Algalita Marine Research Foundation a partner in the projectnbsp The samples are brought to their lab where they all the plastic inside is divided into different sizes colors and typesnbsp The goal is to adequately describe and monitor plastic pollution so that we can find the best solution to the problem

]]></description>
      <author>marcuseriksen@hotmail.com (Marcus Eriksen)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:00:02 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/15/what_do_we_do_with_all_this_plastic_soup</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>I Tried to Collect Seashells and All I Got Was Plastic</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/13/i_tried_to_collect_seashells_and_all_i_got_was_plastic</link>
      <description><![CDATA[


The Algarve Coast in southern Portugal is known for having some of the
best waves and most beautiful beaches in Europe It can now boast another attraction some of
the most plasticky beaches in the world thanks to an accumulation zone caused
by a system of rotating currents including the Gulf Stream which compose the
North Atlantic Garbage Patch


At the
tail-end of the 5 Gyres expedition to the North Atlantic to study marine
debris I went on a ten day tour of Southern Portugal to photo-document beaches
of the Algarve Coast and collect nurdles for Dr Takada’s International Pellet
Watch Project The beaches for all their international bragging rights for good waves
and old-world village charm were astonishingly trashed The worst offenders
Derelict fishing shwag and 517 bottle caps – and just as many little blue
plastic straw-type items that were afterward identified as cotton swab wands



In
total I spent a day and a half collecting trash on Praia do Amado in
Carrapateira To be honest it was more of a voyeuristic investigation into our
calamitous
consumptive
habits than a beach cleanup the latter would be a wasted effort Thanks to the Gulf Stream currents this stuff just keeps coming back Much of the trash on the
beach was covered in barnacles and sea scum and I could tell as soon as I
picked up a blue plastic fragment or a slime-coated bottle cap that this junk
was definitely cruising around the North Atlantic Gyre before landing here 





The
local
community although mostly unaware of the enormity of the garbage
brigadoonnbsp off their coasts was receptive when I talked to them about
the blight on their
beaches I spoke with a local surf shop owner Fabrice Walter from
Carrapateira
Surf Shop who is interested in helping to organize community beach
cleanups Surfrider
has a chapter in Portugal but unfortunately they aren’t active in this region
While I was beachcombing a woman walked up to me and said “I tried to collect
seashells and all I got was plastic” As a matter of fact she was right Whether scanning the tide line or
sifting through sand on my hands and knees the most salient feature of
this beach rather than seashells and beach rocks was utterly
craptastic plastic


nbsp






]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:20:53 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/13/i_tried_to_collect_seashells_and_all_i_got_was_plastic</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Team Marine's 10-Rs: The Problems of Single-Use Plastics</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/13/team_marines_10rs_the_problems_of_singleuse_plastics</link>
      <description><![CDATA[



Our friends at Team Marine a group of eco-ambassadors
from Santa Monica High School created this awesome video on the problem of
single-use plastics Team Marine does a great job raising awareness about marine
debris and the global energy and climate change crises through different
service learning and community outreach projects 

httpwwwyoutubecomwatchv-AqPQkQfAsampfeatureplayerembedded
httpwwwyoutubecomwatchvbchMADGK6Qampfeatureplayerembedded
]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:40:39 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/13/team_marines_10rs_the_problems_of_singleuse_plastics</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Back from the Indian Ocean Gyre</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/12/back_from_the_indian_ocean_gyre</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Were back in LA after an incredible 3 week voyage across the Indian Ocean aboard the Stad Amsterdam with scientists filmmakers and artists Weve now seen plastic pollution in 3 out of the 5 major subtropical gyres 
Well be posting videos photos and stories over the next few weeks Meantime the short version we found plastic in every one of our trawls which became increasingly trashed as we approached Mauritius 
We collected 12 samples and the crew will continue trawling for us on
their way to Cape Town using a high speed trawl he fashioned at sea We call it the Flying Dutchman 

nbsp]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:10:32 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/12/back_from_the_indian_ocean_gyre</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Rincon is Trashed: 5 Gyres on the Road </title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/11/rincon_is_trashed_5_gyres_on_the_road_</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Photo collage of marine debris washed onshore at Rincon Point CA
Stiv and I of 5 Gyres are driving along the US West Coast to present findings from the N Atlantic Gyre expedition and interview key stakeholders in the marine debris issue We are stopping at beaches along the way from San Diego CA to Tofino BC to photo-document marine debris from shore conduct beach transects and collect nurdles for International Pellet Watch Above and below are two images of plastic trash we found and collected at Rincon Beach

Plastic exclamation mark made out of beach debrisnbspfrom Rincon Point CA]]></description>
      <author>leslie@5gyres.org (Leslie Moyer)</author>
      <pubDate>Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:59:01 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/11/rincon_is_trashed_5_gyres_on_the_road_</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Last Post From The Indian Ocean Gyre: Unidentified Swimming Objects</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/03/last_post_from_the_indian_ocean_gyre_unidentified_swimming_objects</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

What on EARTH is that
Yesterday we found perhaps the strangest organism weve ever seen in a trawl Wrapped around a broken plastic coffee scoop was a silvery eel-like fish as long as a pencil with tiny spines lining its sinewy body Its body shape suggested it swam vertically
No one has any idea what it is not even the marine scientists on board Our resident naturalistauthor Redmond O Hanlin has a very fun hypothesis but we wont bias you with his guess yet Can anyone out there ID this fascinating creature
2 days from Mauritius and were undoubtedly seeing an increase in plastic This mornings trawl was full of trash - a broken cup piece of a bowl loads of broken down plastic film and dozens of fragments along with 6 small triggerfish 5 pterapods a few pelagic crabs a strange broccoli-like sea plant several halobates marine water skeeters and another tiny unidentified fish possibly related to the Sargassum fish

By the next blog entry we will have either spotted land or landed An incredible voyage coming to a close - and a third oceanic gyre now explored for plastic pollution Though our research here will end tomorrow the Beagle crew has agreed to continue gathering samples en route to Cape Town hopefully coming closer to the center of the gyre We will eagerly await their findings
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 03 Apr 2010 15:36:02 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/03/last_post_from_the_indian_ocean_gyre_unidentified_swimming_objects</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Indian Ocean Gyre: Pufferfish On Java And A High SPEED TRAWL!</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/01/the_indian_ocean_gyre_pufferfish_on_java_and_a_high_speed_trawl</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

picture is small because it was sent via satellite
After weeks of tweaking refining head scratching and testing again the high-speed trawl finally works like a charm One of the crewmembers Johann the Bosun took a special interest in the design and added several key modifications – some wooden skies a few metal fins and a longer bridle And now with 4 days to go before reaching Mauritius we have a super Macguyvered trawl fashioned from scrap material that can be towed continuously at high speeds We call it the “Flying Dutchman”

Yesterday we tried our first 24-hour trawl from the side of the boat No sooner did we toss it in the ship’s hotel manager Martin a 6’8 boyish blonde with twinkling blue eyes approached us apologetically “I’m terribly sorry but I forgot about the trawl and threw coffee grounds over the side of the boat”
Sure enough the trawl was full of grounds with something elsea thick ring of plastic packaging a few nurdles dozens of plastic fragments and a pufferfish In its final moments the poor puffer was likely the most caffeinated fish in the Indian Ocean The entire crew gathered around for a look at this beautiful little creature inflated like a miniature porcupine
Thanks to the Flying Dutchman Johann and his team will be able to continue collecting samples for us between Mauritius and Cape Town Wind permitting they will be able to venture deeper into the gyre And with some additional samples we should be able to publish our findings – a first exploration of plastic pollution in the Indian Ocean
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 15:53:47 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/01/the_indian_ocean_gyre_pufferfish_on_java_and_a_high_speed_trawl</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>North Atlantic Expedition: The 5Gyres Life Aquatic Spoof Film</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/01/north_atlantic_expedition_the_5gyres_life_aquatic_spoof_film</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ 

Its always great traveling with a talented film maker with a sense of humor  Thanks for this Mr Atallah ]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:27:15 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/04/01/north_atlantic_expedition_the_5gyres_life_aquatic_spoof_film</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Plastic Reef: The Art of 5 Gyres Expedition Member, Maarten Vanden Eynde</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/30/plastic_reef_the_art_of_5_gyres_expedition_member_maarten_vanden_eynde</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

Above Plastic Reef first stage



On our recent voyage to The Atlantic Gyre The Sea Dragons crew consisted of not only scientists journalists and activists but artists as well  We were privileged to take Belgian artist Maarten Vanden Eynde whose work with plastic is downright astonishing Not only is Eynde an exceptionally talented artist hes a dedicated environmentalist and a capable sailor In college Maarten became increasingly unhappy with the state of environmental affairs in the world and sought to build a body of work that would inform the future with positivity


Instead of losing his mind and falling into despair over the challenges that face us as a world Maarten developed a forward looking body of work that look at societys artifacts of now in a future perspective  One of his latest projects which ultimately led him to cross the Atlantic with the 5 Gyres crew is called Plastic Reef  Maarten plans to build a ten by forty meter artificial reef system installation out of found marine plastic debris  This is what he collected on his journey aboard Sea Dragon  Startling hunh Note the objects in the photos that will give you a sense of scale  It was great having you aboard Maarten 


 
 
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:00:07 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/30/plastic_reef_the_art_of_5_gyres_expedition_member_maarten_vanden_eynde</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Two Hurricanes In Two Months And A Birds Eye Video From A Calm Day</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/29/two_hurricanes_in_two_months_and_a_birds_eye_video_from_a_calm_day</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

Latitude 22 033 South Longitude91 109 East
With a name as beautiful as Imani none of us quite believed we were really nearing a tropical cyclone Nor were our weather reports conclusive – a weather fax from a Belgian crew stated “nothing to worry about” And a wildly different report from a French ship warned of an impending hurricane
Better safe than sorry is always the rule of thumb so we detoured North making a wide arc around the possible weather The crew sprung into batten down the hatches” mode taking down sails putting up the small storm sail stowing away all loose gear and stringing up a network of thick safety lines around the entire boat The seas continue to build unmistakably
Lets go watch from the bow Marcus and I step outside Were immediately enveloped in a thick sauna of warm wet air Thankful for the safety lines we grab ahold clip our harnesses on and slip slide our way to the front rails Mountains of water deep valleys and howling winds replace yesterdays gentle blue tapestry The crew now wear their waterproof foul weather gear Less prepared were soaked in a matter of minutes
Just the other month we found ourselves sailing through hurricane conditions in the North Atlantic Our second hurricane in another gyre No one is concerned least of all our Captain Our detour will put us far from danger but we will be in for a ride
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:55:05 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/29/two_hurricanes_in_two_months_and_a_birds_eye_video_from_a_calm_day</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Doldrums of Debris: More From The First Ever Expedition To The Indian Ocean Garbage Patch</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/27/doldrums_of_debris_more_from_the_first_ever_expedition_to_the_indian_ocean_garbage_patch</link>
      <description><![CDATA[


22°3139S 91°3993E
Hey theres a turtle stuck in a ball of net someone yelled from the top of the mast the best place to be for a 360° view of the world for miles From 150ft up in the air came a barrage of sightings a shark two turtles random large fragments of plastic floating by and one enormous ball of tangled fishing nets and rope Were in the Indian Ocean Garbage Patch
An oceanic garbage patch is an area of relatively dense accumulation of debris not an island but a thin soup thats more concentrated in the 5 subtropical gyres than surrounding waters Other than the behemoth net ball or trails of random debris forming wind rows you usually will see very little with the naked eye You detect an oceanic garbage patch when you trawl
Weve conducted 6 trawls in the last 7 days each one with plastic debris Trawls 1-4 had a visible fragment or two floating about A Trawl 5 had a dozen and trawl 6 had twice more than all others combined
So if you hold the idea that the solution to the plastic pollution problem is to go to any of the 5 gyres and get it youre wasting your time and money The plastic out here will likely photo degrade and break apart into smaller and smaller fragments  After cycling through untold numbers of marine organisms through filter-feeding or food mimicry the particles will likely sink to the seafloor either as fish poop or become encrusted by colonizing critters They will take their polymer chains and absorbed pollutants to the sequestering grave of deep sea mud
Solutions to plastic pollution begin on land]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 27 Mar 2010 16:36:23 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/27/doldrums_of_debris_more_from_the_first_ever_expedition_to_the_indian_ocean_garbage_patch</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Do Turtles Eat Plastic, Really?  Answer: Yes. Mostly Juvenile Turtles.</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/26/do_turtles_eat_plastic_really__answer_yes_mostly_juvenile_turtles</link>
      <description><![CDATA[


When the 5 Gyres team made it to the Azores after our North Atlantic marine debris investigation we took the opportunity to see who on the Faial the island where we landed worked on ocean issues and if anyone was working on plastic  This led us to give a presentation at the University of The Azores where we met researcher Marcos Santos Marcos works on tracking sea turtles and hes noted in the necropsies hes done on juvenile sea turtles that many have lots of plastic in their guts  Santos says that juveniles will eat anything looking for a meal while adults are more particular  ]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:07:35 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/26/do_turtles_eat_plastic_really__answer_yes_mostly_juvenile_turtles</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Dinner: White Wine, Garlic, Butter, Clams and OH YEAH, STYROFOAM!</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/25/dinner_white_wine_garlic_butter_clams_and_oh_yeah_styrofoam</link>
      <description><![CDATA[



As a member of the 5 Gyres team back from an expedition to the Atlantic Im no stranger to the horrendous fact that plastic is ending up in the marine food chain Whats really scary is that plastic works like a sponge for chemicals in the ocean -  and bad ones too  PCBs DDT flame retardants etc  But so far I only have firsthand experience with plastic in fish  But this morning one of my brothers in arms from the Connecticut Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation posted the above picture and this description



This Saturday we purchased steamers from a large retail grocer They were local wild harvested While eating one I felt something strange - I spit it out and found what turned out to be a small styrofoam ball Assuming it was a simple mistake we continued to eat but being more careful In the end we found 6 clams with these styrofoam balls At first we thought it was from shipping but upon further review these balls were in various parts of the steamers and could only get there through ingestion


And here is what they pulled out of the clams




]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:26:43 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/25/dinner_white_wine_garlic_butter_clams_and_oh_yeah_styrofoam</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Werner Herzog Plays The Plastic Bag</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/24/werner_herzog_plays_the_plastic_bag</link>
      <description><![CDATA[					
This is amazing Also long Take a moment when you have time
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:23:29 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/24/werner_herzog_plays_the_plastic_bag</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Story Of Stuff: Bottled Water.</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/24/the_story_of_stuff_bottled_water</link>
      <description><![CDATA[					
This is perhaps the best infographicanimated short on the impact of bottled water on our environment both 


from water resource angle and a plastic pollution angle Very nice work Ms Leonard 
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 24 Mar 2010 10:04:19 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/24/the_story_of_stuff_bottled_water</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Trawling For Plastic At Night in The Indian Ocean Gyre</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/23/trawling_for_plastic_at_night_in_the_indian_ocean_gyre</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

24°2925S 98°0639E
I was dreaming that I was sitting at a board meeting for the Algalita Foundation when suddenly someone walked into the dream-office and said “Do you want to trawl now” Half asleep I responded “What Yes Huh” She asked again “We can trawl now at night so you can maybe catch some fish”  It’s 430am and Anna and I are zombies on deck staggering about with the manta trawl  The crew of the 250ft tall ship “Stad Amsterdam” are eager to see what we will find next  “We’re only going 3 knots so we can trawl as long as you like” Christiana says

Anna’s got the trawl log in hand jotting down the starting time and latitudelongitude I’m wearing the harness and locked into the side of the ship as we open the side gate hang overboard with the trawl and throw it in
“We are approaching 5 knots” the officer on deck says  Moments before sunrise we pull the trawl back onboard  The cod end that’s the removable sock on the end of the net has a dozen 4-8 centimeter-long fish like flying fish and myctophids  We’re still far from the accumulation zone of the Indian Ocean Gyre but there are plastic fragments here as well


I’m reminded again that our connected oceans are a plastic soup with varying surface densities of plastic pollution  We expected to find very little here yet here it is There are many people with good intentions that want to solve the problem of plastic pollution by going first to the ocean  It is extremely impractical to start here It must happen upstream in the hands of those that create plastic make plastic goods and the customers that use them  We need better systems for collection and containment of waste better products with less packaging and better materials and plastic itself should no longer be used for throw-away products   Knowing that plastic is an environmental hazard we must end the “Throw-Away” culture that created this mess in the first place]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:25:32 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/23/trawling_for_plastic_at_night_in_the_indian_ocean_gyre</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Climbing Masts and Oceans: More From The Indian Ocean Gyre</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/22/climbing_masts_and_oceans_more_from_the_indian_ocean_gyre</link>
      <description><![CDATA[


Noontime position 24 25510 South 99 28891 East

A few days ago we had our first climbing lesson to learn to scale one of the tall ships vertigo-inducing masts 

Meanwhile our boat is also climbing - UP the ocean In fact on this trip so far we’ve already descended around 30 feet and are now beginning to climb again another 100 to go before reaching Mauritius How is that possible I wondered - isn’t sea level a more or less constant height around the world – ie zero

Meet Bert Vermeersen one of the chief scientists on board taking extremely accurate vertical GPS measurements on sea level height Which is apparently quite difficult to do Bert found Marcus and me on deck early morning struggling to do some sit ups while the boat rocked and rolled about We quickly abandoned this exercise in futility and chatted with Bert instead

“Believe it or not sea level can actually vary by as much as 300 feet around the world” Bert explained “depending on the relative depth of the ocean the force of gravity and differences in topography The earth is a flattened elipse rather than a spherical globe – equator to equator the earth is 20 miles longer than at the poles These differences in sea level height are measured with respect to the ellipsoid”

And so although the indigo blue expanse surrounding us looks perfectly flat we are slowly gradually inching our way up a marine mountain at a pace so slow that only Bert’s high tech measurements will notice the change

Climbing the mast on the other hand – this is a change noticeable enough to send my heart rate soaring After a basic safety 101 from one of the deck hands we donned our harnesses and scampered up the mast as we’ve been watching the crew do enviously for days The view from atop is breathtaking This is now a daily must
AND THE QUEST FOR THE PERFECT HIGH SPEED TRAWL CONTINUES
For the last few days a group of around 10 eager men lead by Marcus and Haico have been wrenching bolting testing and retesting a space age looking steel-torpedo device rigged with an underwater camera and a long net I stand with Redmond O’Hanlon – the resident author on board and watch the male tool circus unfold He chuckles and says to me “if you young ladies ever need to attract a man all you need to do is drag out a wrecked car engine leave some tools lying around and wait for them to swarm”
The idea was to create a high-speed trawl with a camera that would capture footage along the way The first try had the contraption bouncing and diving along the surface like a lovable robotic dolphin The footage was mesmerizing – a crystalline underwater seascape – but the device still spins wildly

And so Marcus is back in the workshop welding another prototype We all wait anxiously

Still we’ve had a chance to trawl twice so far – both times yielding a trawl full of Portuguese Man O War ouch and one or two plastic fragments We’re still far from the accumulation zone
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:47:05 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/22/climbing_masts_and_oceans_more_from_the_indian_ocean_gyre</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Heading To The Epicenter of Indian Ocean Gyre</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/22/heading_to_the_epicenter_of_indian_ocean_gyre</link>
      <description><![CDATA[



25°1591S104°5352E

There are still 2000 miles and two weeks between us and
Mauritius with the Indian Ocean Gyre between us We’re working with another scientist from the University of
Hawaii Nikolai Maximenko who has developed a computer model which predicts
where plastic pollution might collect in the world’s oceans

To create his model he took information from 12000 drift
buoys which have already been tracked around the world He added what is known about currents
and wind to the equation On his
map of the world he released hypothetical drift buoys evenly across every
point in the sea Amazingly the
drift buoys migrated to the 5 gyres


We’re using the Maximenko model to plan our route through
the 5 gyres We’ve already been
through the North Pacific Gyre and North Atlantic Gyre After 500 miles in the Indian Ocean
Gyre we’ve conducted two trawls We found plastic in each one

]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:03:41 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/22/heading_to_the_epicenter_of_indian_ocean_gyre</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Climbing And Welding: Yardarms and Building a High Speed Trawl</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/20/climbing_and_welding_yardarms_and_building_a_high_speed_trawl</link>
      <description><![CDATA[




26°2721S106]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:34:33 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/20/climbing_and_welding_yardarms_and_building_a_high_speed_trawl</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>5 Gyres North Atlantic Expedition on Treehugger.com</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/19/5_gyres_north_atlantic_expedition_on_treehuggercom</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
					5 Gyres got a nice little piece posted on Treehugger today with a cool picture slideshow of our voyage to The North Atlantic Garbage Patch  Click here to check it out
]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:32:07 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/19/5_gyres_north_atlantic_expedition_on_treehuggercom</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Trawling The Indian Ocean, The 5 Gyres Team Gets A Free Ride</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/19/trawling_the_indian_ocean_the_5_gyres_team_gets_a_free_ride</link>
      <description><![CDATA[



Latitude 30 04312 S   Longitude 112 51078 E

Our first 24 hours on the Indian Ocean Neither of us can quite believe we’re here

When the opportunity arose 2 weeks ago to join a Dutch expedition from Perth to Mauritius leavingimmediately we both jumped at the opportunity All right I admit I had a few concerns “but we JUST got home from 2 months on the Atlantic And what about looking for a house to live in and I’ve missed my family and” But having married a perpetual adventurer it didn’t take long for his “life is short opportunities like this just don’t come along often” approach to rub off on me

This is truly a once in a lifetime experience The expedition headed up by a Dutch production company retraces Darwin’s route around the world Along the way they are producing 35 documentary films exploring various aspects of life since Darwin – from coral reef ecology to sea level rise to plastic



And so we find ourselves passengers on the 250-foot clipper the Stad Amsterdam one of the most beautiful vessels we have ever seen She carries 50 people – scientists filmmakers producers authors and a crew of 25 in charge of sailing the boat – ie no night watches for us

We had our first chance to trawl today an unexpected surprise We had just spent an hour in discussion with the film crew about how to balance the ships need to arrive in Mauritius on time with our interest in trawling Slowing a boat of this size is a major undertaking and time is of the essence  Marcus found a workshop and welding machine on board and may try to design a high-speed trawl Which would be a huge help




And then magically the boat slowed to 35 knots on her own just long enough for us to throw the manta trawl in Here’s what we pulled up


 

A bowl full of juvenile Portuguese Man O War with one visible piece of plastic Our first piece of plastic from the Indian Ocean Gyre And not likely to be our last



]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:46:48 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/19/trawling_the_indian_ocean_the_5_gyres_team_gets_a_free_ride</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>5 Gyres Presents At The American Museum Of Natural History In NYC</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/18/5_gyres_presents_at_the_american_museum_of_natural_history_in_nyc</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

This past sunday The 5 Gyres project was invited to present on marine debrisplastic pollution at The American Museum of Natural History in New York City It was a tremendous opportunity for us having some 3000 people pass through the museum hall over the course of the day Dr Marcus Eriksen Leslie Moyer and myself chatted with a very receptive crowd about the problems of marine debrisplastic pollution in our worlds oceans We showed samples weve taken from The North Pacific Garbage Patch as well as our most recent trip to the Atlantic Gyre We also ran a childrens program where we created a sandbox for children to see what kind of plastic fragments exist on our beaches Well children love sandboxes and the concept worked very well as an educational tool Big thanks to the museums staff who made this possible Our message is getting out there



]]></description>
      <author>stiv@5gyres.org (Stiv Wilson)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:42:57 PDT</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/18/5_gyres_presents_at_the_american_museum_of_natural_history_in_nyc</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>All Gyre Samples are In!!!</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/13/all_gyre_samples_are_in</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

We trawled 15 times across the surface of the North Atlantic Gyre in the 2000 miles it took to sail from Bermuda to the Azoresnbsp We even survived a hurricane but still kept collecting samplesnbsp But by March 1st we learned they were lost The ice had certainly melted so the fish tissues were gonenbsp After two weeks they appeared in LAXnbsp Though the fish turned into putrid soup the plastic particles inside each sample are intactnbsp They are now in the Algalita lab being analyzednbsp 


 Analysis of a gyre sample can take up to a week as lab staff manually remove and categorize each piece of plastic according to size type and colornbsp In the end well have a good snapshot of plastic pollution in the North Atlantic Gyrenbsp Though others have studied the western edge of this gyre for decades no one has ventured eastward beyond the center of the Sargasso Seanbsp We did just that and found plastic debris in every trawl
]]></description>
      <author>marcuseriksen@hotmail.com (Marcus Eriksen)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:08:12 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/13/all_gyre_samples_are_in</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Missing Gyre samples</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/05/missing_gyre_samples</link>
      <description><![CDATA[nbsp





We’ve been keeping a low profile for the last week and a half Our Atlantic gyre samples – the lifeblood of our entire expedition went missing at the airport in Paris in transit back to LA To say that we are dumbfounded and devastated is an understatement We are praying that they turn up losing them is simply not an option 


Meanwhile our crew has returned home - to Los Angeles Portland Rotterdam Hawaii and San Francisco And the team is growing - Stiv Wilson Leslie Moyer and Brennan Novak have officially joined 5 Gyres bringing much needed skills and direction to the project 
 
Though the tranquil memories of the Azores are blurred by urban traffic and gyre sample woes a few highlights still stand out

 



Giving a talk at the University of the Azores to a group of marine biologyESL students Later that night we ran into a few students at a local bar who told us how moved and shocked they were Though they see plastic covering their beaches most hadn’t heard about plastic in the food chain

nbsp

On our way to the talk we saw this crew in their full aquatic armor Leslie and I couldn’t resist a photo opp We call this “5 GUYRES”


Meeting with Marco Santos a charismatic knowledgeable PhD candidate at the University of the Azores Marco studies threats to sea turtles posed by long lining and plastic Sadly most of our video with him disappeared but here is a fragment featuring this juvenile brought to his office – a victim of bycatch




Our field trip to the local landfill Yes we spend our leisure time visiting dumps This garbage graveyard an open pit filled with trash stands right on coast overlooking the Azorian blue 


Plastic bags toys shoes and other detritus spill out over the top where winds will easily tumble them towards the surf below



We’re now moving full speed ahead planning upcoming expeditions to the South Atlantic and South Pacific Gyres including a possible 6-month global plastic expedition More about this to come soon – meantime we’re calling on the Gyre gods to return our missing samples immediately






]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:14:11 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/03/05/missing_gyre_samples</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>What's Dumped on Your Beach?</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/25/whats_dumped_on_your_beach</link>
      <description><![CDATA[We’ve found a beach in the Azores that receives the southern swell and
wind from hurricanes that dominate the North Atlantic in winter above
the Sargasso Seanbsp We caught the edge of one a couple of weeks ago
with gusts up to 50 knots and waves three stories tallnbsp But what else
do these waves carrynbsp The Sargasso Sea is a sea without borders
gently spun by the clockwise currents of the Gulf Stream North
Atlantic Current Canary Current and the Equatorial Currentnbsp These
currents brush by Europe and North America and receive water from

rivers that flow into themnbsp They also carry plastic pollution nbsp


We’ve seen so much of it in the North Atlantic Gyre but there’s more
ashore After three thousand miles and three islands we’ve seen that
one place where plastic pollution goes is on the beaches of island in
the gyrenbsp This beach was littered with the usual suspects light
sticks toothbrushes buckets and crates bottles bottle caps
cigarette lighters clothspins and tattered fragments of plastic
filmnbsp Once again I’m struck with the fascination that this beach was

cleaned recently before the storm nbsp



What will they do with this plastic pollutionnbsp The community of Horta
will bury it on the islandnbsp It’s a short term solution to a long term
problemnbsp But what if this stuff had valuenbsp What if individual
products were worth somethingnbsp What if all of it were worth something
by it’s weight like we do for all metalsnbsp Systems of recovery must be
improved and it can happen with legislationnbsp Currently some states
are proposing Extended Producer Responsibility EPR which creates a
post-consumer economic incentive to bring back products for moneynbsp It
works whenever the strategy is usednbsp For great information about EPR
visit httpcleanproductionorgProducerIntroductionphp]]></description>
      <author>marcuseriksen@hotmail.com (Marcus Eriksen)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:23:32 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/25/whats_dumped_on_your_beach</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Back on Terra Firme!</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/15/back_on_terra_firme</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Horta Azores



The sight of land after weeks at sea is always exciting– but arriving in the Azores is especially so And beating the next incoming storm was an added bonus





At around 600 am we heard the loud clanging of the “land ahoy” bell – a rusty handheld bell that originally belonged to – the Sea Dragon now uses it to signal land in sight Skipper Clive hand steered us into the harbor masterfully reading and riding the winds so that our crew didn’t have to tack once





And there in front of us framed by an incredibly bright full rainbow the Azores – we were all silenced A soft green landscape disappeared up into a cloudbank patchworked with natural hedges dividing plots of land



Anticipating landfall elicits a range of emotions on a journey like this We’re all eager to walk freely sleep in a stable bed have a cold beer and a green salad real coffee and exercise Thirteen grown adults sharing a small space certainly has its moments At the same time there is absolutely nothing that compares to the freedom and sense of space that crossing an ocean brings Far from our work routines cell phones and internet we spend hours on deck staring out to sea watching the stars and musing on life’s mysteries We will miss these peaceful marine meditations





We tie off in the harbor deal with customs and head straight for Peter’s bar a local sailors hangout The bar is covered with sailing memorabilia – flags from around the world scrimshaw and old maps We order the aforementioned beers salads and cappuccinos and toast the success of our journey





We collected 35 surface samples total despite hurricanes that mandated a 600-mile gap in our research All of them contained plastic We collected some fish – not as many as we’d hoped to based on our Pacific Trawls but the Atlantic is new territory for us We found one incredible fish – a trigger living in a plastic bottle - a synthetic cage nbspWe collected tons of debris on all three islands And we made some tremendous connections in Bermuda and now the Azores to collaborate with in the future



Now to explore the Azores
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:36:05 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/15/back_on_terra_firme</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>One last trawl before The Azores</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/11/one_last_trawl_before_the_azores</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
The Azores are near nbspWeve only 150 miles to go which we should cover by tomorrow morning nbspBefore the sun rose we threw our trawl in for one last sample nbspOnce again plastic but nbspalso plenty of myctophid fish Well send this sample to the Algalita lab in California for stomach analysis nbspWhen we did this in the North Pacific Gyre we found 13rd of the fish had ingested plastic fragments





This trawl did not contain any sargassum nbspThere seemed to be more large fragments of plastic in this trawl leading me to think that that sargassum mats floating in the North Atlantic Gyre serve a sieves for large fragments of plastic pollution nbspIn the absence of this floating seaweed the plastic fragments are more distributed across the sea



Weve trawled 35 times in 3000 miles nbspTomorrow we will land on our third island in the North Atlantic Gyre nbspWell travel around the Azores to see what washes up on their shores and discover how they deal with plastic pollution nbspStay tuned
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:59:42 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/11/one_last_trawl_before_the_azores</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Final Stretch</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/10/the_final_stretch</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
145 am our daily alarm clock sounds “Marcus Anna your watch is up in 20 minutes” Despite Marjolin’s sweet gentle voice we groan in protest For several days finding a safe position to fall asleep in without being thrown out of our bunks has been a losing battle We’re all sleep deprived



Aside from our skipper Clive these are the heaviest seas any of us have seen Simple tasks – opening cans of food making coffee showering cleaning the kitchen – become enormous tests of balance And not without casualties – spills cuts scrapes and an entire cup of coffee dumped on a laptop to name a few



But as we come up on deck this morning we’re greeted by relatively calm seas Back in business Crew begin smiling again Joel and Lam bake fresh bread we give the boat a serious 3-hour scrub to blasting music and finally return to collecting samples What a difference a day makes



We haven’t had a chance to observe the subtle changes in the oceans surface for the last few days distracted by massive waves We now notice no more floating patches of Sargassum We wonder if we’re still in the “Atlantic garbage patch”






A quick glance at our trawl answers our question the same collection of small plastic fragments 3 nurdles and a few surprises



“Look at that 3 Portuguese Man of War” Marcus picks one up by its inflated air bladder careful to avoid the deceptively alluring still stinging tentacles A small piece of plastic is nestled amongst the bright blue tentacles These potent creatures are actually comprised of a colony of different polyps each with distinct functions that work together A very cool cooperative survival tactic Just keep your distance



We’ll trawl one more time tonight during our 1000 watch – our 35th and final trawl We’re now less than 300 miles from the Azores and beginning to reflect on the last 6 weeks The same questions echo from friends and crew have we found what we expected Is this similar to what weve seen in the North Pacific What comes next Well touch on some of these tomorrow now back to research
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Feb 2010 11:42:41 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/10/the_final_stretch</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>In The Center of the Sargasso</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/08/in_the_center_of_the_sargasso</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
“50 knots” Anna yelled above the roar of wind and sea spray nbspIt’s 300 AM and we’re on watch nbspThough the center is 800 miles from us and slowly moving away we are still feeling high winds along its edge nbspA couple hundred miles south of us it’s calm but we need to head northeast nbspWe’ve got a week to go before we reach the Azores nbspWe’re hoping the weather lightens up soon



Two days ago we completed Trawl 33 at 28N50W nbspIt was densely packed with sargassum and microplastic particles Our two primary research goals have been accomplished First to document what’s floating on the sea surface in the middle of the North Atlantic Gyre nbspSecond to collect enough samples to validate computer models that predict the eye of the gyre where plastic pollution accumulates



The next watch has taken over the helm nbspWe climb down from the deck soaked from seawater while the next team ascends into chaos nbspSustained 40 knot winds create mountainous seas nbspI don’t think we’ll put the trawl back in the sea anytime soon



1145 pm just before midnight – Marcus John Mike and I are on watch from 10 till 200 With the moon moments from rising the sky is still dark enough to get lost in an infinite display of stars John snaps us out of our night-dreaming “We’re here



Looking around the view looks no different than yesterday – waves whitecaps and wind in all directions But we’ve just hit one of our major destination points – the center of the Sargasso Sea According to a current modeling study by Nicolai Maximenko LINK this amorphous area is predicted to be the most dense accumulation zone based on releasing drift buoys and tracking their travels We’re hoping to see if the density of plastic in our samples fits in with this model



But a major storm building 900 miles of us may limit our trawling time





“Guys this may be your last chance to trawl before the hurricane hits” Clive the skipper has been poring over weather charts for hours trying to find the best weather window for our sampling Winds are already at 15-20 knots but things are only going to get worse so we go ahead throw in our trawl and return to star gazing for another three hours The seas begin to rise ominously



We’re glad we took the chance – under our headlamps we can see a glittering of white plastic fragments nestled in the Sargassum nbspWe won’t know just how much though until we’re able to process these in our lab



We haul up the trawl just in time – the winds have now picked up to a steady 25 knots Hard to believe that early this morning the seas were calm and glassy – the ocean is indeed unpredictable and fickle – never to be taken for granted The power of the winds howling past our sails is tremendous beautiful and awe inspiring We’re in for a few days of heavy weather
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:46:22 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/08/in_the_center_of_the_sargasso</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Near The Center of Sargasso Sea</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/04/near_the_center_of_sargasso_sea</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

We’re near the center of the Sargasso Sea at 28N50W  It’s just about as far from land that you can get in the North Atlantic  Yesterday we found a windrow filled with patches of sargassum and plastic  Everything you could imagine finding in your local department store was bobbing in the sea the EASTERN GARBAGE PATCH





Then we came upon a bucket  Anna and John brought it aboard only to find something violently wriggling inside  There was a trigger fish far larger than the opening of the bottle   Who know how long it had been in there destined to be entombed there  We found plenty more pieces of plastic – toothbrush crates buckets bottle caps shoes glove plenty of fishing gear and a boxing mouthpiece  “What are you going to do with the fish” someone asked  I explained that one question we want to find out is “Who is eating plastic bottles” We would keep the fish for stomach analysis but only if I promised not to waste the filletsnbspwhich we later ate for dinnernbsp



Trigger fish have a really bad overbite  The teeth of a trigger fish are designed for biting little things  They have small sharp teeth that can snatch a shrimp from the sargassum or a barnacle from floating debris or a triangular fragment off a plastic bottle  Looking closely at the bite marks on a plastic bottle one can see two little dimples above the triangular bite  These are the two upper teeth  The lower teeth oriented to form a sharp triangular edge rip a fragment off the bottlenbsp 



Though we haven’t observed this the teeth seem to match the bite marks  There are no other fish present  I don’t think small birds or turtles have the power to be contenders for this feat either  I’m confident we’ve identified another species of fish mistaking our plastic waste for food  One more reason why we need to rethink how we use plastic
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:31:12 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/04/near_the_center_of_sargasso_sea</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Good Morning America: Trash Found In Fish</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/03/good_morning_america_trash_found_in_fish</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Good Morning America aired a segment today regarding the plastic pollution problem it features an interview with Marcus amp Anna talking about 5 Gyres and their North Atlantic research


]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:41:20 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/03/good_morning_america_trash_found_in_fish</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Atlantic Garbage Patch</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/03/the_atlantic_garbage_patch</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
We’re less than a hundred miles from the predicted accumulation zone the center of the Sargasso Sea Yesterday we came across our first real glimpse of what we’ve seen in the North Pacific Gyre – the infamous “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”- only here in the North Atlantic



We had just pulled in our first trawl after 48 hours of laying low due to heavy winds We can’t sample when storm winds pummel the oceans surface – suspended plastic is so close to the buoyancy of water that the slightest disturbance nudges it below the reach of our trawl Forced to do nothing for 2 days but tend to boat duties read and entertain one another we were all starting to climb the walls And then we spotted the windrow flanked by a group of dolphins dancing in our wake





Stretching far across the horizon was a long chain of floating Sargassum mats clumped together like huge wicker doormatsnbspEmbedded in each patch was a disturbing mosaic of plastic junk “This looks more like the Pacific gyre” commented Joel Paschal who has also been on several long research voyages with Captain Moore We grabbed our nets and began fishing furiously amassing a pile of bottlecaps shotgun shells crates toothbrushes a boxer’s mouthpiece and myriad unidentifiable chunks floated by gently pulsating with the ocean’s currentsnbsp





There is no doubt in our minds that the Pacific plastic plague is not an isolated phenomenon but an International problem We’ve seen plastic trash covering beaches in Bermuda carried from the mainland by the Gulf Stream We’ve seen broken down fragments in our trawls after sieving the ocean’s surface We’ve now seen mini “islands” of plastic trash entangled in Sargassum And yesterday afternoon we saw the strangest thing yet involving a large trigger fish and a plastic bottle But that’s a story for tomorrow
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:37:09 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/03/the_atlantic_garbage_patch</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Computer Says A Storms A Brewing</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/02/computer_says_a_storms_a_brewing</link>
      <description><![CDATA[					

35 knot winds nbspWe pulled the 7th trawl out of the sea just in time Its likely the last one for a couple of days until a large low pressure system blows over us nbspWere finding more plastic in every surface sample we collect nbspWere heading to the center of the accumulation zone 285N50W nbspFrom there well turn and sail to the Azores



We use the manta trawl to skim the surface of the sea for micro-plastics nbspIt’s working as expected and the samples were collecting look alot like samples from the North Pacific Gyre nbsp There are plenty of fragments of plastic in each trawl but there’s little debris related to the fishing industry nbspIn the Pacific we find plenty of lost nets line and floats nbspThe Atlantic Gyre appears different in this regard



Winds are still howling nbspOur skipper Clive Crosby works with us to find the optimal course and speed so that we can get a trawl every 100 miles or less nbspRight now we’ve got the storm jib up nbspWe’re moving slow maybe 4 knots nbspHopefully we’ll trawl tomorrow

]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:16:16 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/02/02/computer_says_a_storms_a_brewing</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Hurry up and slow down</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/31/hurry_up_and_slow_down</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Noontime position 30 3006 North 60 2223 West



Three days twenty-six trawls countless pieces of plastic and fourteen hundred miles till we reach the Azores Though we added 4 new crewmembers in Bermuda - an increase in bodies and decrease in personal space – the additional 3 artists filmmaker and veteran sailor Joel Paschal are all adjusting to the unusual routine of boat life Bursts of activity – trawling cleaning cooking sailing – followed by long bouts of waiting Staring out to sea And catching regular sun and moon rises – here’s Stiv greeting the day with his best Titanic rendition






Since leaving Bermuda our trawls have looked nearly identical to those we collected on our first leg – clumps of Sargassum peppered with small particles of plastic – whites blues grays and the occasional pastel Which gives staring out to sea a bittersweet tone – in this seemingly pristine landscape impossibly clear waters stretching thousands of miles in all directions our random samples all contain plasticWe’re still on track with our goal of conducting a mega transect – sampling at least once every hundred miles but the weather continues to be our wild card After 3 dreamlike days high winds now force us to slow down - we can’t get beyond our 100-mile limit between trawls unless we absolutely have to






Built for speed this slow pace is torture for the Sea Dragon At 10-15 knots she slices through the water gracefully an aquatic gazelle At our trawling speed of 2-4 knots however she plods and heaves heavily engine growling stray lines clanging in protestBut we have no choice but to wait – the heavier winds churn the sea surface pushing plastic beneath the range of our trawl So we’ll continue to pass the hours meditate on the seascape entertain one another and await the next weather forecast
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:45:18 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/31/hurry_up_and_slow_down</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>North Atlantic Gyre: Jan 28th: Plastic Ring</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/30/north_atlantic_gyre_jan_28th_plastic_ring</link>
      <description><![CDATA[

Jan 28 “Plastic Ring”nbsp


We end our first day at sea after an unbelievable 10 days in Bermuda  The island in now a distant glow on the horizon as we put the research trawl back in the water  We slow the sailboat down to 2 knots and trawl for 3 hours skimming the surface for whatever floats  At 130am we pull in the net   Among the shredded plastic film nurdles and random pieces of plastic confetti we’ve also nabbed a milk jug ring






In our lectures we often talk about the impact of plastic pollution on wildlife There is a snapping turtle named “Mae West”  When she was a hatchling she walked into a milk jug ring  As she grew she could not break this corset around her waist  Now she’s as big as a football but with a thin waist looking more like an hourglass  Her spine has never healed










This is an example of two key problems to the plastic pollution issue  First that milk jug ring is a product made to last forever yet designed to be thrown away  Throw away plastic products which do not biodegrade are quickly littering our world



Second of the millions of products made in plastic only a handful have a reasonable plan for recovery  Two companies Naked Juice and Earthbound Farms take back all of their plastic containers and will truthfully recycle them back into the original product  But millions of other products made from plastic have no post-consumer plan so you find them on roadsides filling landfills washed up on beaches and floating out to sea  WE MUST IMPROVE RECOVERY  And please remember recovery doesn’t begin at sea  The 5 sub-tropical gyres in the world cannot be cleaned but we can end the Throw Away culture of plastic consumption on and improve recovery of everything else



Jan 29 “Not a Plastic Bag”






“Don’t touch the tentacles” Joel warned everyone nbspWe’ve got a Portuguese Man of War in the net nbspIt has beautiful colors in shades of blue a translucent balloon with a pink stripe across the top nbspWe’re seeing plenty of wildlife nbspJust an hour ago two crew members spotted three whales nbspBoth whales and jellyfish are susceptible to ingestion and entanglement by plastic nbspBaleen whales are filter feeders and the tentacles of jellies tangle anything in their way Anna just saw the fluke of another whale nbspWe’ve now been at sea for 24 hours nbspA third of the crew has been sick nbspWe’ve completed three trawls nbspAnd at this moment there’s still daylight while we travel 8 knots under sail power alone
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:07:27 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/30/north_atlantic_gyre_jan_28th_plastic_ring</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Thank you Bermuda!</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/29/thank_you_bermuda</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
At 1000 yeserrday morning on our final day of preparations before setting sail for the Azores a truck arrived at the harbor delivering two entire palettes of food from Butterfield and Vallis- the leading food supplier in Bermuda -  all donated a gift to our expedition Steve looked on wide eyed as massive amounts of meats cheeses canned goods breads and more were piled in our carts and loaded on the boat “We’ve got enough food to sail around the world



Later that morning Jim Butterfield himself paid us a visit and we experienced first hand his tremendous generosity 







“I watch plastic trash accumulate here in our local waters” he mentioned and told us about watching mini-garbage patches form right here in the harbor An avid sailor and environmentalist Jim has also spent time on the high seas observing the same plastic that washes up on Bermuda beaches When our new friend Jennifer Gray mentioned our budgetary concern with provisioning a boat for 13 people he made an offer we couldn’t refuse



“Come to the warehouse give us your wish list and anything we can’t supply we’ll buy for you at the local supermarket”



Francois met us at the warehouse and spent a patient hour going over our culinary Christmas list  His only concern was supplying small amounts “I can’t give you 2 tins of tomato sauce but I could give you a case will that do”

  


We’re incredibly grateful for the support and kindness we’ve been shown in Bermuda and though all are anxious to get back to boat life we’re not in a hurry to leave the Island Our ten days of school visits beach cleanups guided tours of the incinerator and recycling center and dinner parties wrapped up tonight with a final feast at the Hog Penny – where yet another supporter Jay Nichols treated 15 of us to a last supper on stable ground



We must give tremendous thanks to a few other people that made our stay in Bermuda enjoyable and very rewarding Judith Landsburg and our new friends at Greenrock were always at the ready to help with our needs  Judy Clee Bermuda’s premiere beachcomber showed us around the island and a visit to the Aquarium to get answers to our fish questions from local experts The folks at Keep Bermuda Beautiful and the recycling center welcomed us with tremendous smiles and eagerly took charge of meticulous measures of plastic waste on Bermuda shores  And JP Skinner at BIOS-nbsphis patience good spirit knowledge and passion defines what an educator should be





We leave Bermuda with a strong desire to return  When we do we will have plenty of information to share about our research and knowledge that the people of Bermuda are at the ready to take the helm to conserve and protect our shared oceans
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:55:52 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/29/thank_you_bermuda</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>West Bermuda Beach</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/28/west_bermuda_beach</link>
      <description><![CDATA[



Some of the 5 Gyres crew went for an unassuming hike on a West Bermuda Beach What did we find
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:33:12 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/28/west_bermuda_beach</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>North Atlantic Gyre: Bermuda Beach Trash</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/23/north_atlantic_gyre_bermuda_beach_trash</link>
      <description><![CDATA[




Two dozen Bermudan High School teens combed Coopers Beach despite 20 knot winds and horizontal rain “Look at the broken pieces along the high-tide line” JP Skinner yelled over the roar of wind JP directs the public school programs for the Bermuda Institute of Oceanographic Sciences BIOS  Half of the kids are climbing through the high tide line pulling nets buckets shredded bottles and a vacuum cleaner out of the trees In half an hour JP and the kids create a pile of trash as tall as me



Bermuda is an island in the middle of the North Atlantic Gyre  We’ve been here for 4 days working with groups like “Greenrock” and “Keep Bermuda Beautiful” to clean beaches and lecture about what we know about plastic  My growing impression of Bermuda is its likeness to Hawaii  Both are in the path of their respective gyre currents – North Pacific Gyre vs North Atlantic Gyre  Both carry a burden of trash from the shores of other nations The trash even looks the same  Nurdles are everywhere  Bottles are full of bitemarks  And plastic confetti of colored and degraded fragments litter the wrack line  



Do these clean-up efforts work  A storm is fast approaching and I can see a barnacle-covered milk crate in the surf  Where did it come from  If we pick up this one how long till the next one arrives  It’s great to see the students getting out of the classroom to experience nature  They feel good about cleaning up this junk  That is certainly meaningful but does the clean-up effort make a difference  I don’t think so



I think about solutions often Of all the plastic pollution I’ve seen in the world on beaches floating out to sea piles of it burning in developing countries bags stuck in trees or littering roadsides what I don’t see are those plastic products that have post-consumer value  I don’t see very many plastic bottles on the streets of Los Angeles where I live because it’s worth a nickel to 8 cents at a recovery center  But recovery centers don’t take much else  



What if all plastic waste had value  Imagine a per-pound recovery program that gave kids a buck for every pound of plastic waste they brought in as it is for most metals  Let’s bring back the “School Paper Drive” but for plastic   If citizens could return mixed plastic to recovery centers for a significant monetary return then I’m certain we would see people conducting their own beach clean-ups  You wouldn’t see plastic bags in trees or plastic on roadsides  You might even see those gyre clean-up efforts actually make a few dollars by going out to sea  



The plastic industry claims its all recycleable but unfortunately it’s not recoverable   You can’t do anything with it if you don’t have it  Voluntary recovery programs account for a small percent of the plastic we produce – less than 4  An economic incentive to collect mixed plastic waste would work  The plastics industry could make this happen  Here’s how it works  You collect all of your plastic all of your packaging disposables broken buckets old toys all that useless plastic stuff  Clean it dry it and take it to a recovery center for  per pound  The plastics industry then deals with the material they created  It would work
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:43:21 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/23/north_atlantic_gyre_bermuda_beach_trash</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>North Atlantic Gyre: Bermuda Island</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/21/north_atlantic_gyre_bermuda_island</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
We landed in Bermuda on Sunday just ahead of the gale force winds that hit 24 hours later After 9 days at sea without news cell phones internet we were all deeply saddened to hear the news about Haiti – a jolt of perspective after being single mindedly focused on plastic marine pollution





The sight of land after days of the endless seascape is always a welcome change - Bermuda particularly so Gliding in on a serene still Sunday we were all silenced by the beauty of this oasis in the middle of the Atlantic Clusters of pastel colored stucco houses nestled on rocky outcrops crystal clear turquoise waters powdery white beaches tinted pink from corals - we all wondered why we haven’t heard more about Bermuda A secret well kept by East Coasters



We’ve been here for 5 busy days thus far taking part in a number of educational activities organized by our tireless host Judith Landsberg who runs local environmental charity Greenrock and is good friends with Ron and Portia from Pangaea Thanks to Judith we’ve been to three Beach Surveys toured the local incinerator will be giving a public talk tonight speaking tomorrow at BIOS the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences meeting tomorrow evening with the US Ambassador at the Consulate touring a local recycling center and speaking at a school And then a good 48 hours to enjoy our “honeymoon suite” kindly provided by BIOS





Monday morning we joined our first cleanup at John Smith beach Crewmember Stiv Wilson Editor in chief of Wend magazine and rarely at a loss for words struggled to describe the scene “This isunbelievable” The array of plastic trash littering this otherwise idyllic white sand beach was so plentiful and varied that we were able to make this mosaic here from trash collected in half an hour 2 PHOTOs- MAKING MOSAIC AND FINAL PRODUT





On our second beach cleanup- a similar scene - we found one remarkable piece of plastic a wad of plastic filmsheeting with a colony of corals Foraminifera growing on top Nature has a wonderful way of adapting that will hopefully supercede our efforts to destroy her





Little or none of this trash originates in Bermuda – rather this is trash from the mainland carried some 700 miles by the Gulf Stream and dumped on distant shores Frequent beach cleanups by Keep Bermuda Beautiful serve as a temporary fix and a wonderful community effort but more plastic simply washes up the next day This serves as a sobering reminder that the problem starts on land – and on land is where solutions must begin We can’t sieve net vacuum or cleanup all the plastic on the world’s oceans and beaches we must move further upstream to where the problem begins




We’ll be blogging much more frequently from now on – so stand by for a recount of our visit to Nonsuch Island and a nearby shipwreck and our tour of Bermuda’s incinerator – where all Island Garbage is burned in a waste to energy model
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:54:17 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/21/north_atlantic_gyre_bermuda_island</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>North Atlantic Gyre: Day 6 Chasing Windrows and Dodging Storms</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/15/north_atlantic_gyre_day_6_chasing_windrows_and_dodging_storms</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Clear skies cede to gray clouds howling winds and boiling seas And with it our ideal trawling conditions come to a temporary halt Crew stumble around the galley grabbing onto handholds for support while poorly stowed pots and pans rattle until someone gets the hint Now we don foul weather gear on our night watches – life jackets and “deadliest catch” sea suits harnessed at all times to the boats safety lines







We’re reminded of Ron’s parting words – “Remember the ocean is not your friend Respect and enjoy her but never forget she can turn on you”



Just as suddenly she turns again – the seas settle to a gentle ripple and we resume our trawling “The calm before the storm” remarked Stiv How right he isA spectacular double rainbow stretches across the horizon We reel in trawl 11 – to find the by now predictable handful of Sargassum a few pelagic crabs a dozen halibates like a water skeeter the only marine insect and the ubiquitous plastic fragments we’ve come here to research Though we’ve found plastic in every trawl the pieces have been tiny and few – nothing like the density we’ve seen in the Pacific






And then we came across our first windrow – a series of counter currents that create a slick line of debris on the oceans surface “A plastic bottle Noit’s a BOOT”  Bobbing amongst a patchy line of Sargassum was a large rubber boot covered with barnacles and algae As our skipper Clive shifted gears to backtrack we began spotting more and more plastic trash “A bottle cap another bottle cap A roller blade wheel” Marcus stood at the bow shouting directions to Clive while we dashed from port to starboard with our modified pool skimmer netting as much as we could 45 minutes later we’d collected some 17 bottle caps a shotgun shell a plastic roller ball from a deodorant stick numerous plastic chips several plastic milk jug rings and finally – the boot



After 45 minutes of conditions calm enough to explore the windrow the winds regrouped and we’re now slamming along over fairly rough seas – too rough unfortunately to trawl We’re hoping for another break in the weather to gather a few final samples before racing to Bermuda to beat a nasty storm on the horizon Ultimately our schedule means little – as the ocean has plans of her own We’re pretty sure none of these plans involve choking on our plastic trash
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:46:56 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/15/north_atlantic_gyre_day_6_chasing_windrows_and_dodging_storms</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>North Atlantic Gyre: Sea Blog 01</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/11/north_atlantic_gyre_sea_blog_01</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Three days into our expedition Blue skies light winds and relatively calm seas We’re motoring along at 2 knots painstakingly slow for a sailor but perfect speed for collecting surface samples of plastic pollution So far we’ve collected five – every one contained plastic fragments film line and pre-production pellets Small quantities and small particles but present nonetheless 





We left the St Thomas yacht harbor on Friday afternoon after several days of prepping stowing running errands and squeezing in last emails while the rest of the crew arrived- nine total Besides Marcus and me there is Ivan Martinetti from BlueTurtle our title sponsor Jon Howard- “JT” from Ecousablenbspalso sponsors of JUNKraft and JUNKride Leslie Moyer an activist and supporter from San Francisco Stiv Wilson CEO and editor of Wend Magazine and a phenomenal chef Steve Amato-Salvatierra the Sea Dragon’s intern fresh out of high school and sailing around the world before college and our skipper and first mate from the UK- Clive Crosby and John Wright both exceptional sailors and exceptionally patient men 



Already the busy yacht harbor bustling with tourists and horizon-blocking cruise liners seems far away – our only view now is 360 degrees of Caribbean blue



After the first evenings wave of seasickness bouts – from mild nausea to hanging over the side of the boat – we’re now settling into a routine sleep cook trawl eat clean trawl sleep trawl scan horizon for debris trawl Our goal is to collect at least 25 samples by the time we reach Bermuda in 8 days and another 25 as we continue on crossing the Atlantic to the Azores



We pulled up trawl 1 on Saturday morning as an eager crew clustered around the manta trawl flip and digital cameras in hand “Did you find anything” asked Jon always ready to film After thoroughly rinsing and tossing a few handfuls of Sargassum link to wikiother description of Sargassum we found a few tablespoons of planktonic organisms flecked with small plastic particles




What at first appears a scant amount compared to our Pacific trawls is still reason to reflect in this vast ocean several hundred miles from the predicted accumulation zone using a relatively tiny device – we’re finding evidence of plastic This short clip shows how we conduct our sampling






Other notable trawl findings a small translucent jelly with a chip of blue plastic in its body – an example of organisms interacting with debris a large sheet of plastic packaging a small piece of plastic film two fishing floats one plastic crate and a partridge in a




In four days we hope to reach the center of the Sargasso Sea where the plastic accumulation zone is predicted to be Meantime spirits are high crew is fueled by our mission and were constantly reminded of the tremendous support it took to get here
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:49:04 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/11/north_atlantic_gyre_sea_blog_01</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Dump and Dive</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/08/dump_and_dive</link>
      <description><![CDATA[


I dumped all of the air from by BC and sank like a rock 70ft to the sandy seafloor before me a living wall of corals and tropical fish Anna’s sporting her new matching light blue fins mask and snorkel  Every crack and crevice hides something living  The colors are spectacular and meaningful to the critter that wears them either hiding warning or for pure persuasion to fight or frolic  I look up at the trickle of light permitting me to see things mostly in hues of blue  “But what did this reef look like years ago”  Seasoned divers say it’s now covered with algae and nothing like it was 30 years ago Yet my baseline is now and it’s beautiful  So what’s missing  And does it matter





We’re on St Thomas in the Virgin Islands awaiting our window of departure for the first transatlantic expedition to study plastic pollution in the Sargasso Sea  There are unending little chores to prepare the Sea Dragon a 72ft sailboat one of 12 in the Challenge Series  We’ve made time for diving and a visit to the landfill Approaching the hill we begin to see the manmade slopes littered with cars and tires at the base This is where Anna and I meet Boogie  He’s been working here more than a decade





Boogie explains that goods are imported and nothing has left until now  “There have been cars dumped here since I was born over 100000 of them  They we’re all here” he says pointing to a field nearby where he says they were stacked 50ft high  “People don’t pay attention to where these things all things go  We finally found a way to recover the steel and sell it  It took an economic incentive to clean the mess and it will take one to stop more” But for every car there are four tires



We drive over one hill and see a black valley  “There are one million tires there” he says  Then he points to the bailer  There are bricks the size of Volkswagen beetles each holding 100 tires squished together  “We’ve moved 200000 of these from St Thomas” Boogie says proudly  “Where they go I don’t really know for sure but they’re not here”





Continuing our uphill spiral we come to the top of the hill where the juxtaposition of bulldozers squishing trash contrasts the blue skies ocean and green hills The growing mountain we stand on is a sandwich of new trash sand and rock and more new trash Does it matter that the new version of normal the baseline of what nature is includes a wasteland  The human evolved aesthetic didn’t include this landscape The human expectation for living novelty and diversity is diminished





What we saw on the dive and in the dump are a signal that some systems are not working and that there is a need for innovation and legislation to make it right  The solutions are there  Check out 5gyresorg to see a few  What story will we tell in 30 years  Will we reminisce or rejoice
]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:33:47 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2010/01/08/dump_and_dive</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The Sediment Grabber</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2009/12/23/the_sediment_grabber</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
In order to take sand sediment samples from the ocean floor on the bottom of the North Atlantic Gyre Marcus invented and built what he calls the Sediment Grabber Watch the video to learn morenbsp



]]></description>
      <author>brennan@reverseproductions.com (Brennan Novak)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:28:10 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2009/12/23/the_sediment_grabber</guid>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Approachable Architect podcast: 5gyres with Marcus and Anna</title>
      <link>http://5gyres.org/posts/2009/12/23/approachable_architect_podcast_5gyres_with_marcus_and_anna</link>
      <description><![CDATA[
Hear our recent podcast on The Approachable Architect a program founded by LEED certified architect David Doucette We met David while tabling at the Mar Vista Farmers Market - he was fascinated to learn more about plastic marine pollution So he invited us onto his show to learn morenbsp


David told us later how stunned he was to learn about the potential scope of the plastics issue And that he particularly enjoyed the loud sound made by the spring-loaded sediment sampling device Marcus brought it - an explosion going off Makes me jump every time


]]></description>
      <author>annacummins@gmail.com (Anna Cummins)</author>
      <pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:42:10 PST</pubDate>
      <guid>http://5gyres.org/posts/2009/12/23/approachable_architect_podcast_5gyres_with_marcus_and_anna</guid>
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