Interesting article in today's Herald about the rubbish in what has been dubbed "the plastic vortex" of the Pacific Ocean (must be an area of the ocean where rubbish accumulates) and the use of a floating processing plant (a ship moored nearby) to convert some of the rubbish into diesel to power the plant. They estimate six million tonnes of plastic has collected in the site by swirling currents.
The hope is that if this scheme works here, then it can become a prototype for clean-ups in other plastic-polluted waterways.
Interesting to see that with current technologies, they claim "a car can be run for an hour from a lump of plastic the size of an ice-cream carton".
Forest & Bird » Marine and Coastal
Pacific's "Plastic Vortex"
(21 posts)-
Posted 2 years ago #
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Is it true that turtles mistake plastic bags in the ocean for jellyfish and eat them? When you walk along the Southern South Westland seacoast as we do a lot here, plastic drink bottles are some of the commonest beach litter and plastic water bottles perhaps the most common of all the drink bottles that you find as beach rubbish. Polystyrene comes a close second.
Posted 2 years ago # -
Very interesting i wonder where that vortex is situated would make an interesting site .
Sort of plastic heaven must go now and look it up on the web before there is another quakePosted 2 years ago # -
Gosh i found it straight away anne ,its terrible you cant comprehend how man can damage this planet just to make life easier
http://forum.forestandbird.org.nz/topic/pacifics-plastic-vortex
the knock on effects are so far reaching no one could forsee this .
will now look at the rest of them clips terrible future for this planet.Posted 2 years ago # -
Plastics Heaven....really good imagery. Yes, incredibly huge area of rubbish. Amazing!!
Gerry, in one of Kirstie's clips on this Green Room noticeboard I think, she points to an article that says cigarette butts are one of the biggest polluters of the oceans now. I couldn't help but think that sending smokers out onto the footpaths to smoke probably has increased the number of butts going down the drains and straight out to sea in this country.Posted 2 years ago # -
This time last year I went to one of most beautiful places in the world...Palau white beaches,amazing fish, turtles, whales and plactic. I had no idea before i saw this! :-(
Posted 2 years ago # -
Posted 2 years ago #
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Arrr!!! What a horrible scene in the picture. More blue than any other colour.
Posted 2 years ago # -
one of the worst thing is that in the vortex it is breaking down and being eaten by fish and so passing on in the food chain the possibilites are endless you could not envisage this or the possible future problems,
Posted 2 years ago # -
If you have a quick look at the thread on this page about cig butts (Butt Butt Butt...I think it's called) you'll see a bit of video about cigs killing a turtle in Dunedin Harbour...the animal ate butts flushed into the sea...
And in another somewhere, Gerry asks about marine animals eating plastic bags.
But I s'pose some of those animals die then and there. I hadn't thought about fish eating plastics and it getting into the food chain like that. Makes sense of course. Pretty horrible - I wonder what the long-term effects are of plastics in the food chain like that?Posted 2 years ago # -
Insightful too, that in the You Tube clip from ReelEarth in Butt Butt Butt it was the nicotine that poisoned and killed the turtle from eating cig butts in the sea ...
Posted 2 years ago # -
I /we have known for a while of some of the horrible deaths of fish and birds animals etc at sea or on the shore due to pollution and discarding of waste products/ plastics .
But i thought the plastics broke down in the uv rays eventually if it was not washed ashore to think when it breaks down into small peices its outnumbering plankton and being eaten by fish and birds you couldnt make it up where will it all end we need to go ban all non organic packaging and cig butts dispose of them effeciently in a smoking bar not outside every bar and club.
AS with everthing like that when we find out the truth its to late the damage is donePosted 2 years ago # -
I always try and buy glass, not sure if thats the way?
Posted 2 years ago # -
We have a really awesome poster here in the F&B office - kindly shared by the Western Underwater Research Team - based up in Auckland.
If you would like a copy please shout. Also, if you can put up in local shops, libraries, boat/dive stores, please yell and we'll happily provide :)
Attachments
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Marine_Debris_poster_vsmall.jpg (96.7 KB, 0 downloads) 2 years old
Posted 2 years ago # -
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Exciting stuff -
A group of innovators, scientists, environmentalists, ocean lovers, sailors, and sports enthusiasts have teamed up and are settiong sail from the US in 4 days to research and hopefully CLEAN UP the NOrth Pacific Gyre.
Read all about it at:
Posted 2 years ago # -
I thought that F&B members might be interested in this email I received today from a DOC staffer involved in Beach Clean Ups. It would be great if she could post it to the F&B Green Room as well.
Hello Tawaki,
I saw your comment on the Forest & Bird blog site:
"Is it true that turtles mistake plastic bags in the ocean for jellyfish and eat them? When you walk along the Southern South Westland seacoast as we do a lot here, plastic drink bottles are some of the commonest beach litter and plastic water bottles perhaps the most common of all the drink bottles that you find as beach rubbish. Polystyrene comes a close second. "
And thought you might be interested in the attached picture - we used it as part of an awareness campaign during Seaweek in January this year, when the message was what we do on land affects the ocean.
One of our staff here recently spent 6 months as a volunteer on a bird sanctuary island in Hawaii. She reported that the large seabirds - albatross, booby etc - scoop up their food from the surface of the sea and in so doing pick up rubbish from the huge waste vortex. They then feed their chicks, many of whom only survive 3-4 weeks as their insides are clogged up with toothbrushes and lighters etc. It's sad evidence of the "Tragedy of the Commons" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons
I've also attached an excellent powerpoint on the problem of plastic bottles - sorry it's a bit big.Kind regards
© erlst.com
It is estimated that more than a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die globally each year from eating or getting tangled up in plastics.
Posted 2 years ago # -
If you want a visual representation of the amount of plastic bottles, supermarket bags, barbie dolls and aluminium cans the US goes through every few minutes/months see chris jordan's work, it's pretty mind-blowing -
Posted 2 years ago # -
Stunning, amazing, awesome and yes, mind-blowing, and very very clever.
Thanks for pointing that link out.Posted 2 years ago # -
A great bit of American footage on U-Tube with some valuable messages about YOU and me can make a difference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLrVCI4N67M
For those of you in the Wellington area..... join the Blue Wellington team in Conservation Week (19 September) to do a mass beach clean up - both above AND below water!
For more infor check out our events calander at:
http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/saving-our-environment/event-calender
Let's take action all.
K
Posted 2 years ago # -
Plastic Beach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN9j0y9bivoPosted 1 year ago # -
This is worth watching.
http://tvnz.co.nz/global-radar/yr1-e5-video-4381506?fb_ref=facelike&fb_source=profile_oneline
Posted 4 months ago #
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