Ocean Pollution: North Pacific Gyre filled with Plastic
In 1997 a well-known chemist, scientific researcher and sea captain named Charles Moore, set sail from Hawaii back to his homeland, California after competing in a yacht race. Along the way, Captain Charles Moore had extra fuel to spare and decided to take a short cut through the low pressured winds of the north pacific gyre. As he and his crew reached the calm within the gyre, they were completely caught off guard as they noticed bits and pieces of debris floating around the ship. Standing on deck observing this ere site they began to wonder. As vast as the ocean is, being hundreds of miles away from civilization, it became clear, the debris was not floating by especially for them. It was through this single voyage alone, the "north pacific garbage patch", also referred to as the “Pacific Trash Vortex” estimated to …show more content…
“Authors Contributions: Conceived and designed the experiments: ME LCML HSC MT JCB PGR JR. Performed the experiments: ME LCML HSC MT CJM JCB FG PGR JR. Analyzed the data: ME LCML HSC MT JCB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LCML JCB. Wrote the paper: ME LCML HSC MT CJM JCB FG PGR JR. Calculated plastic fragmentation rates: MT. Designed ocean model: LCML JCB. Contributed field data: ME HSC MT CJM FG PGR JR.” (Eriksen)
1571 field locations contributed data (Eriksen 3) from 24 expeditions that took place between (2007–2013) across all five sub-tropical gyres. (Eriksen 1) Particles were collected in two ways to accumulate data. One way was done with net tows to collect tiny fragments of plastic and the other was done by visually tracking large plastics during expedition and later calculated by a simulation
In 1997 a well-known chemist, scientific researcher and sea captain named Charles Moore, set sail from Hawaii back to his homeland, California after competing in a yacht race. Along the way, Captain Charles Moore had extra fuel to spare and decided to take a short cut through the low pressured winds of the north pacific gyre. As he and his crew reached the calm within the gyre, they were completely caught off guard as they noticed bits and pieces of debris floating around the ship. Standing on deck observing this ere site they began to wonder. As vast as the ocean is, being hundreds of miles away from civilization, it became clear, the debris was not floating by especially for them. It was through this single voyage alone, the "north pacific garbage patch", also referred to as the “Pacific Trash Vortex” estimated to …show more content…
“Authors Contributions: Conceived and designed the experiments: ME LCML HSC MT JCB PGR JR. Performed the experiments: ME LCML HSC MT CJM JCB FG PGR JR. Analyzed the data: ME LCML HSC MT JCB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: LCML JCB. Wrote the paper: ME LCML HSC MT CJM JCB FG PGR JR. Calculated plastic fragmentation rates: MT. Designed ocean model: LCML JCB. Contributed field data: ME HSC MT CJM FG PGR JR.” (Eriksen)
1571 field locations contributed data (Eriksen 3) from 24 expeditions that took place between (2007–2013) across all five sub-tropical gyres. (Eriksen 1) Particles were collected in two ways to accumulate data. One way was done with net tows to collect tiny fragments of plastic and the other was done by visually tracking large plastics during expedition and later calculated by a simulation