Scientists have found another patch of plastics, human trash, and chemical sludge deep within in a remote pocket of the Pacific Ocean. Much like the more northerly "Great Pacific garbage patch" found between Hawaii and mainland US, it’s definitely not good news.
The new patch was recently confirmed by a project led by oceanographer Charles Moore of the Algalita Research Foundation during a six-month voyage around the Pacific, off the coasts of Chile and Easter Island and within the South Pacific Gyre. Previous research has hinted at the presence of the patch, but this is most concrete evidence to date.
The researchers are still in the process of crunching the data on this new discovery, however Moore estimates it has the potential to be as big as a million square kilometers (386,100 square miles) – that’s four times the size of the United Kingdom.
The Ocean CleanUp Project is positioning itself to address the garbage patches of the oceans. The kid was 18 when he came up with the idea and now they have booms in place.
Check them out and offer to help if you can!
Edit: Many of you have pointed out the founder was 15 when he came up with the idea and executed at 18.
I spent two months in Honduras doing some scuba diving, and sadly this doesn’t surprise me at all.
While the reefs off the coast of Honduras are absolutely beautiful, it was super common to see trash bags floating by underwater, and garbage washing up on the shores. We would try to collect them as we saw them underwater.
From what I understand a lot of this trash flows into the ocean from Guatemala, although I’m sure more of it comes from Honduras than the locals would like to think.
The saddest part is that many of the locals in both Guatemala and Honduras are so proud of their countries, and really do all that they can to prevent these types of environmental issues.
In Utila (the island where I stayed for 2 months) the locals organized weekly beach cleanups and had some nice recycling and waste management initiatives in place (these services are not provided by the local government, they were fully community-driven).
In both countries it was super common to see fences and structures made out of plastic bottles that had been stuffed with plastic bags and other trash, to make them solid and sturdy so they could be used as “bricks.”
Unfortunately, nothing is going to change for real until the governments down in Central America start seriously investing in environmental protection, or until an outside nation like the US steps in to do it...neither of which is likely to happen anytime soon.
mrshatnertoyou on October 20th, 2017 at 18:13 UTC »
Just discovered three months ago.
notlikethat1 on October 20th, 2017 at 18:52 UTC »
The Ocean CleanUp Project is positioning itself to address the garbage patches of the oceans. The kid was 18 when he came up with the idea and now they have booms in place.
Check them out and offer to help if you can!
Edit: Many of you have pointed out the founder was 15 when he came up with the idea and executed at 18.
thewanderingblonde on October 20th, 2017 at 21:51 UTC »
I spent two months in Honduras doing some scuba diving, and sadly this doesn’t surprise me at all.
While the reefs off the coast of Honduras are absolutely beautiful, it was super common to see trash bags floating by underwater, and garbage washing up on the shores. We would try to collect them as we saw them underwater.
From what I understand a lot of this trash flows into the ocean from Guatemala, although I’m sure more of it comes from Honduras than the locals would like to think.
The saddest part is that many of the locals in both Guatemala and Honduras are so proud of their countries, and really do all that they can to prevent these types of environmental issues.
In Utila (the island where I stayed for 2 months) the locals organized weekly beach cleanups and had some nice recycling and waste management initiatives in place (these services are not provided by the local government, they were fully community-driven).
In both countries it was super common to see fences and structures made out of plastic bottles that had been stuffed with plastic bags and other trash, to make them solid and sturdy so they could be used as “bricks.”
Unfortunately, nothing is going to change for real until the governments down in Central America start seriously investing in environmental protection, or until an outside nation like the US steps in to do it...neither of which is likely to happen anytime soon.