Is Anyone Missing A Lot Of Garbage? It's In The Pacific Ocean
Monday, September 7, 2009 - 12:37
in Earth & Climate
You know there's a lot of garbage floating around out there when it gets a name like "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch." Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) researchers decided to find out if it lived up to its moniker. It wasn't a pretty sight. The Scripps research vessel (R/V) New Horizon left its San Diego homeport on August 2, 2009, for the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, located some 1,000 miles off California's coast, and returned on August 21, 2009. They surveyed plastic distribution and abundance, taking samples for analysis in the lab and assessing the impacts of debris on marine life. read more