Inside Bay Area.com 9.1.09
"Scientists who returned to the Bay Area this week after an expedition to the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' brought piles of plastic debris they pulled out of the ocean - soda bottle, cracked patio chairs, Styrofoam chunks, old toys, discarded fishing floats and tangled nets. But what alarmed them most, they said... was the nearly inconceivable amount of tiny, confetti-like pieces of broken plastic..."
An investigator described this excessive marine debris as the "new man-made epidemic," since the tiny pieces are believed to contain toxic chemicals and can absorb banned substances such as DDT. Not only is there a chemical threat, but the growing garbage patch debris poses danger to marine life and birds.
Read the entire article.
Our Take:This is an issue we’ve been covering for year -
see our information on the lingering legacy of plastic in our oceans. Mindless over-consumption of use & toss
items is at the root of this problem, and it's up to all of us to wake up and
consciously consume far fewer of them.
Texas-sized garbage patch in the Pacific? According to Fabien Cousteau, grandson of undersea explorer Jacques-Yve Cousteau, that patch has grown, and is now the size of Canada!
Posted by: Ann | September 22, 2009 at 12:32 AM