In August 2009 a group of doctoral students and volunteers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego will embark on an expedition aboard the Scripps research vessel New Horizon to explore the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre. The Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) is the first of its kind and will focus on a suite of critical questions. How much plastic is accumulating, how is it distributed, and how is it affecting ocean life?
We’ll be blogging at least once a day from the middle of the Pacific. We want to give you an idea of what’s really going on in the North Pacific Gyre, how we’re measuring it, and what life aboard ship is like. Stay tuned for more as we prepared for our August 2 departure!
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Good Luck to you all. The first time I heard about the giant trash gathering in the Pacific was just this year!!!! I’m 58 and listen to news that affects our environment. I am horrified and saddened. I also see that some recent ‘know it alls’ have decided THEY know what is really in the ocean.
Good luck to you all. I hope that you can develop a process to rid the Pacific Ocean of all the trash. I can usually come up with a few solutions, even if they are off the wall, but this stumped me. I think because WE have allowed the problem to become so large. Is anyone screaming about it yet?
I’ll be watching for your blogs. Once again, Good luck.
Sincerely,
Maureen Martinek
landlocked
By: Maureen Martinek on July 31, 2009
at 7:39 pm
A similar expedition sailed last year from Hawaii through the plastic patch to California. You might find some information that is useful and of interest to you on that project’s web pages at
http://cmore.soest.hawaii.edu/cruises/super/
Good luck! I hope the weather holds up so you can get out as far as you’d like.
By: Grieg Steward on July 31, 2009
at 8:14 pm
Thank gosh you’re doing this. Thank GOSH.
If you could come up with a way to have this cleaned up (one commenter on my blog came up with profit percentages of collecting, recycling and reselling plastic… feasible?) that would be… awesome.
The very idea of a giant sewage collection dump in the Pacific is painful to imagine. And, the idea of sea life dying slowly from ingestion is also painful… in more ways than one…
Thank you for embarking upon this voyage. Can’t WAIT to hear ALL the results. : )
We have only this one world… round… so that what we do comes back upon us, or at least swirls monstrous and unmitigated in the Pacific… sigh.
PS: I love this blog and what you’re writing!
By: Cdin on August 4, 2009
at 9:33 am
What you’re doing is great! Wish I could join you. Good luck and may the winds remain at your back.
By: Ed Holman on August 4, 2009
at 6:33 pm