Voyage to the Plastic Vortex Sets Sail
Two teams of researchers, which include Project Kaisei and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, have set sail this past week for a four-week expedition to perform extensive research and analysis of the Plastic Vortex — aka the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, a bobbing plastic wasteland twice the size of Texas in the middle of the Pacific Ocean northeast of Hawaii. One ship, The New Horizon (owned by the Scripps Institution), left San Diego on August 2nd, and the Kaisei left San Francisco on August 4th. The expedition is being filmed by National Geographic, and proceeds from the documentary will help pay for the expedition.
Project Kaisei — the name of the oceanic mission that will ultimately explore hi-tech solutions to this plastic dilemma — has the following objectives for this project:
- Study and document the marine debris found in this area of the Pacific Ocean;
- Test catch methods for removing the debris;
- Conduct research on the chemical interactions of marine debris in the gyre and select fishes and wildlife related to persistent organic pollutants (POPs);
- Understand the needs required to undertake an eventual large scale clean-up of the waste material; and
- Test technologies for conversion into an economically viable by-product: diesel fuel.
The Project Kaisei website states: “If the expedition proves successful, and large volumes of plastic debris can be captured and processed, then a full clean-up operational plan would be initiated within 18 months.”
Scientists believe at least 70 percent of the vortex’s plastic is hidden below the ocean’s surface, and that 80 percent of the plastic comes not from illegal ocean dumping but rather litter from beaches and water sources flowing out to sea from land.
Anyone interested in Project Kaisei’s progress can follow their blog or chart it using the interactive voyage tracker: kaisei.blipback.com. Be sure and check out this impressive use of today’s internet technology with Google Earth and short video clips with dates, times, and precise locations.
(I have previously written about the Plastic Vortex in these articles: [intlink id="2301" type="post"]What Can Be Done About the Plastic Vortex?[/intlink] and [intlink id="91" type="post"]The Deadly Plastic in Our Oceans[/intlink].)
