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Garbage Island

10K views 66 replies 26 participants last post by  jackdale 
#1 ·
I am getting really steamed.:hothead

I have been editing and uploading our daily video logs and watching the footage we shot in July and am again seized with anger and despair over the conditions we found on our latest transit of the North Pacific sailing from Hawaii to Alaska. Day after day, starting at about Day 8, the amount of trash floating in the water is appalling! The amount that has sunk below the surface must be horrific.

All you ever see is images of the "Pristine" ocean. Let me tell you: it is not pristine out there. It is a garbage dump. I have vowed to do as much as I can to increase public awareness of this problem. I don't know what else can be done except maybe to get people to generate less trash and to dispose of it properly.

I am trying not to be too heavy handed in our videos; after all, we want people to watch them and be entertained, but we are showing the reality that most people will never see. I just hope we have some small impact and maybe cause someone to be more careful disposing of that styrofoam packing material or plastic container.
 
#3 ·
I am getting really steamed.:hothead

I have been editing and uploading our daily video logs and watching the footage we shot in July and am again seized with anger and despair over the conditions we found on our latest transit of the North Pacific sailing from Hawaii to Alaska. Day after day, starting at about Day 8, the amount of trash floating in the water is appalling! The amount that has sunk below the surface must be horrific.

All you ever see is images of the "Pristine" ocean. Let me tell you: it is not pristine out there. It is a garbage dump. I have vowed to do as much as I can to increase public awareness of this problem. I don't know what else can be done except maybe to get people to generate less trash and to dispose of it properly.

I am trying not to be too heavy handed in our videos; after all, we want people to watch them and be entertained, but we are showing the reality that most people will never see. I just hope we have some small impact and maybe cause someone to be more careful disposing of that styrofoam packing material or plastic container.
Are you aware that our own U.S. NAVY is still exempt from the MARPOL rules..

SEAWASTE
 
#7 ·
for decades, NYC and other mid atlantic states barged garbage and wastes out to the ocean and just chucked overboard...I think until the 90's when they started trucking some 1,000's of tons daily to PA/MD/VA and even NC...

then there is the whole sewerage issue...some states still run long pipes out and pump the marginally treated stuff in to the ocean...

until this nation focuses on the other parts of the recycle cycle..like reduce, reuse .....the oceans will be the easiest place to chuck it. Just look at any intersection at all the garbage that washes in to the storm sewer drains and out to the oceans....
 
#9 ·
Agreed.

Public awareness is key here. Recycling, reusing, etc.. As a surfer and sailor, I explain to non-water people that the ocean isn't pristine like they think, it's more like a diluted pool of trash. Most especially around populated areas, where rain just creates run-off of everything on land flowing into the ocean. LOil, littered garbage, dead animals (seriously), chemicals, you name it, it flows into the ocean. There isn't much one person can do personally, but when I walk back from each surf, I pick up what I can on the beach, it's usually grocery bags and food bag wrappers. I've seen much worse after storms though.

The other day I was sailing off of Los Angelese and saw a soda can with japanese (my guess) labels, I assume drifting from the tsunami. I'm thinking about bringing one of those pool cleaning nets and when I take guests sailing, just having them swoop some things up if they get bored. The thing I see most commonly in the ocean are party balloons all leaking air and tied together, floating on the surface.

The whole disposal of trash is an entirely immense issue, but for people who enjoy the oceans and lakes, seeing it treated like a land fill is awful. The sea is such a vulnerable and easy place to let waste seemingly dissappear.

There's some strong voices out there sailing, on swellvoyage.com, Liz has seen up close the amounts trash surrounding "beautiful" indonesian islands and other places.

I've been in traffic before and witnessed someone litter out their window. I got out my truck, walked up to their door and picked it up, said "Excuse me I think you dropped this" and put it back in the persons face. The person sat speechless. Of course, I don't recommend doing this, there's some crazies out there. I chose this woman because she had kids in her car, figured she wouldn't act insane in front of them and maybe they'll get the message too.

I'm thankful that most sailors aren't contributors to the problem.
 
#11 ·
I know several companies are working on recycling systems that will turn any plastics back into usable fuels or other materials using technologies that make it much more practical then it is today, and using more forms of plastic then are recyclable today.

My someday sci-fi hope is that with the rising cost of crude oil, the value of recyclable plastics will rise so high it will become commercially viable to "mine" the plastics from the oceans in places like the "great pacific garbage patch".

I can someday see wind or solar powered boats scooting around with large nets catching this stuff for profit.

I know, it's just a sci-fi fantasy with lots of practical issues, but I can hope... :)

I too have wondered many times what can be done to raise awareness and get things changed. Seems like the only thing that will change the masses is economic return, so I hope someday it at least becomes to economically costly to throw plastics away, even if it's not economically viable to go in search of what we've already discarded.

And Chuck, thanks for the videos, I watch them all and enjoy them immensely.
 
#14 ·
Mother nature always has ways of eventually correcting things that get out of balance. Human nature, being as it is, (ultimately being part of mother nature) will probably thin out the species.:D
 
#24 ·
True, sadly. But it can be reduced substantially I hope. By reducing the amount of synthetic, non-biodegradable packaging and educating the populace to properly dispose of trash we can certainly make a dent it.

Much of the debris we found was derelict fishing gear that is nowadays made of plastics. It floats until it collects enough marine growth to sink it. then it is out of sight but still there floating below the surface. That gear is not cheap and fishermen don't cut it loose on purpose. I don't know what the solution to that part of the problem might be - different materials that will do the job more economically and bio-degrade more quickly is the only thing I can think of.
 
#25 ·
We should make Japanese Tsunamis illegal, will be less trash floating in the ocean that way.
Helloooooooo, there was a major disaster in Japan recently that washed zillions of tons of debris into the ocean. Ya think that could have something to do with this?
 
#26 · (Edited)
Of course natural disasters will add to the problem but i think it would be silly to suggest that thereis not a hell of a lot more rubbish floating about now than say fifty years back.

That part of it caused by natural disasters is to my mind simply suggesting that we as a species generate way too much garbage, much of it non biodegradable and we need to address this issue.

As for the amount in the ocean the damage to marine life alone is enough to cause concern. Only this week a whale calf was seen in Sydney Harbour trailing the remnants of a fishing net. How many more critters die simply because we are thoughtless in the way we generate and dispose of rubbish.
 
#28 ·
Of course natural disasters will add to the problem but i think it would be silly to suggest that thereis not a hell of a lot more rubbish floating about now than say fifty years back.

That part of it caused by natural disasters is to my mind simply suggesting that we as a species generate way too much garbage, much of it non biodegradable and we need to address this issue.

As for the amount in the ocean the damage to marine life alone is enough to cause concern. Only this week a whale calf was seen in Sydney Harbour trailing the remnants of a fishing net. How many more critters die simply because we are thoughtless in the way we generate and dispose of rubbish.
I think everyone should euthanize their children for the sake of 'sustainability'. Apparently not much else seems to be working.
 
#29 ·
There is trash washing up on Washington beaches daily from the tsunami, so much that the feds have kicked in some cash to help with the disposal. You would have sailed right through the middle of it on your route. They expect it to continue for another year I think. I've got two aluminum net floats from Japan sitting right here beside me from the beach a little while ago, there are boats, docks, you name it coming across the N Pacific.
 
#31 ·
The 2011 tsunami made it worse, no question. But do not make the mistake of thinking that that event was the cause. We saw a disturbing amount of trash in mid Pacific in 1999 when we sailed from Vancouver to Hawaii in the Endeavour Replica, more in 2007 when we took Lealea from Hawaii to Washington. We can't do anything about natural disasters but we each, one person at a time, can certainly do something about the problem of pollution in the seas.
 
#33 ·
Let's recap, some nutjob poisons several packages of aspirin, so the drug company has to go to more extensive packaging to protect their customers. Floating band-aids (and worse) convince us that re-using soda bottles made of glass is dangerous to our health, so the soda companies go to one-use plastic bottles. All this evil plastic was introduced into packaging to protect US (every one of you, and me too!). But in the provisioning threads we don't like taking all that packaging onto our boats, there is no place to dispose of trash at sea (or on most islands). The limitations of our boats make us more vigilant about trash, and our interaction with the ocean make us painfully aware of the condition of our planet.
But it seems to me that any solution we propose has to acknowledge the existence of the prior problem and has to solve it too. Less plastic use would be good, what do you replace it with and meet the needs of the earth's seven BILLION inhabitants? More plastic recycling would be good, who is doing research on it and how do we support that research?
Like the issues in tuna fishing that killed dolphins, the first step is making everyone aware of the issue. Thanks for the video doing that. Keep at it.
But let's look for real solutions -- they are the only ones that will ever be implemented.
 
#35 · (Edited)
Every time we go for a sail we come across plastic bottles ... not good and not much we can do about it but it doesn't justify us throwing our rubbish overboard. Equally so I feel simply because our neghbours are grubs does not mean we have to be as well.

Less plastic would be good ? No doubt and reusable bags for groceries is one way to cut back on plastic usage. When we do end up with plastic bags then use them for trash collectioninstead of putting them into another plastic garbage bag.

Glass and aluminium containers will break down in the ocean and they don't float. So much better than plastic.

Hell, it is not all that difficult is it ? I simply do not understand why it is such an issue.
 
#37 ·
Sd1953 you said it very well. A lot of the plastic we throw away is used to replace paper/cardboard. McDonalds replaced their food containers of cardboard with styrofoam to avoid the storm about "saving our trees". What! Trees are a renewable resource, and many wood products ARE recyclable. But we are told by one group that saving a tree is good and then another group that plastic is bad. We seem to be damed either way. I mostly am a day sailor and use my net for scouting up fish mostly for scouting up trash from our costal waters. I agree it is heart breaking to see so much trash in the ocean. I suspect that most of what I pick up in S Cal waters is from local boats. I find a lot of Mylar baloons too from cruise ships.
 
#38 ·
WCoast .... I very much doubt that you would find a single environmentalist anywhere on the planet who would prefer wrapping a hamburger in styrofoam over cardboard or paper. What depresses me is that said hamburger is first wrapped in paper, then put into a styrofoam box before being packed up into a paper bag. Why on earth does a hamburger require three layers of packaging ?
 
#39 ·
Not only that but even if you go in to sit down and eat, they wrap the darned thing up in layers. Must be some gov't. health dept. rule that the poisonous contents inside need to be covered at all times until eaten.
 
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