The Latest On Plastic Pollution

Here's a great find for everyone following the devastation of plastic poisoning our planet. 5Gyres is keeping track of research and posting findings:

RESEARCH IS UNDERWAY!! Boldly Trawling Where Few Have Trawled Before

By Stiv Wilson on May 09, 2012

Editor's Note: The following report comes from 5 Gyres Ambassador, Carolyn Box, who we refer to affectionately as CBOX or SEABOX, due to her love for the open ocean and the 5 Gyres mission. So, what is a trawl? Well, it's simple. Our Executive Director, Marcus Eriksen, has invented a trawl device for gathering samples at high speed, i.e. the speed of the boat, which we call 'The Flying Dutchman' as it was invented on a Dutch tall ship with a welding studio somewhere in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Though we don't use The Flying Dutchman to quantify density of plastic, it allows us to constantly gather samples without slowing down the boat, and provide samples for education and to share with all our ocean conservation partners and allows the public to see firsthand what oceanic plastic pollution looks like.

The Manta Trawl is what we use for scientific work with a strict protocol and has been used for years as the standard device for data gathering (we didn't invent this). The Manta Trawl skims the surface of the water with an opening 25x60 centimeters and sines water through a standard plankton net. The mesh of this net is so fine, only water escapes. In addition to the net, the Manta Trawl is equipped with a flowmeter which records how much water passes through the trawl. We trawl at 50 nautical mile intervals, gathering a transect across an entire ocean. The Manta Trawl is out for EXACTLY one hour, at a speed of about two knots (we slow the boat down). What collects in the trawl is what you see above, plastic. This picture is a view into the net itself and is an actual sample. Doesn't look like much, right? Well, when you consider that the opening of the trawl is very small, and we're only dragging it for about two nautical miles at each instance, that changes everything. Once we count the plastic pieces and extrapolate from the flowmeter how much water has passed through, along with applying the time and distance it traveled, we can then figure out how dense the surface layer of ocean is per square kilometer with regard to plastic particles. That number, mathematically derived, is pretty staggering when you're talking about human caused pollution in the absolute middle of nowhere. Typically, when you get towards the center of the gyre, that number goes up.)

Cbox's report from Sea:

We launched the hi-speed trawl yesterday and dragged it until this morning, approximately 100 nautical miles through the Pacific. Research has begun. As Marcus unveiled the sample, the crew surrounded him with curiosity. The sample included several small fragments of colorful plastic (at least twenty pieces) and a single nurdle, a pre-production pellet used to make all plastic items. We have not officially entered the Western North Pacific accumulation zone yet, which explains the minimal amount of plastic found. We are heading west northwest at the moment (Course is 305 Degrees) for the next 580 miles and then we will head north and head into the accumulation zone for approximately 610 miles until we head west to Tokyo (approximately 800 miles). Little plastic pollution research exists in this area of the ocean – the last samples collected were done in the mid 1980s.

We are about to launch the first manta trawl at 4PM today. This will be the beginning of our official research. The plan is to put the manta out every 50 nautical miles, as long as weather continues to be appropriate. In total, we will probably collected 25 to 35 manta trawl samples, along with a similar amount of hi-speed trawl samples. In addition to the research beginning today, Shanley and I are leading sit-up sessions during the 60 minutes that the trawl is out. Sea Dragon is slowed down to less than 3 nautical miles during this time – perfect time to get a little exercise in.

Source: http://5gyres.org/posts/2012/05/09/research_is_underway_boldly_trawling_where_few_have_trawled_before