I shared my shock and disgust over this discovery back in February 2008. Please click HERE to read what I wrote and the article reporting on these rubbish dumps caused by large CRUISE LINERS, oil platforms and ships!!! The WORLD can no longer PRETEND these humongous DUMPING sites in our oceans don't exist. We, all of us, will pay the price down the road.************************************************************
Guardian UK
Eco-warrior sets sail to save oceans from 'plastic death'
written by Robin McKie
Sunday 12 April 2009
Billionaire banking heir David de Rothschild plans a remarkable journey in a plastic boat to highlight the enormous 'garbage patch' caught up in the swirling Pacific Ocean currents. Robin McKie reports.
In a few weeks, the heir to one of the world's greatest fortunes, David de Rothschild, will set sail across the Pacific - in a boat, the Plastiki, made from plastic bottles and recycled waste. The aim of this extraordinary venture is simple: to focus attention on one of the world's strangest and most unpleasant environmental phenomena: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a rubbish-covered region of ocean, several hundred miles in diameter.
The patch, north-west of Hawaii, was discovered in 1999 by researchers who found that its waters contained tens of thousands of pieces of plastic per square mile, the remains of rubbish caught in the region's circulating ocean currents. This pollution is now devastating populations of seabirds and fish that live in the region.
During his trip, which is being sponsored by the International Watch Company and Hewlett-Packard, de Rothschild will collect water samples and post blogs, photographs and video clips of the area, in an attempt to publicise the perils posed by plastic pollution.
To further highlight the oceans' plastic pollution problems, the 30-year-old environment crusader has designed a special catamaran with a hull made of frames filled with 12,000 plastic bottles. The cabin and bulkheads of Plastiki have also been constructed out of a special recycled material called srPET, made of webs of plastic.
"The plastic water bottle epitomises everything about this throwaway, disposable society," said de Rothschild, who trained to be a showjumper in England and who has trekked to both the north and south poles. However, he added that he was not aiming to demonise plastic, but was trying to highlight its alternative uses, as well as focusing global attention on the dangers posed to the ecology in regions such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The destinations for the craft's great voyage have been selected to highlight a variety of environmental threats, including overfishing and climate change. However, the most important part of Plastiki's route will be its voyage round the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific, where it will focus global awareness on the issue of marine debris and pollution.
The patch was discovered 10 years ago by the oceanographer Charles Moore when he was sailing off Hawaii. "I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic," Moore later recalled. Among the items he spotted were plastic coat hangers, an inflated volleyball, a truck tyre and dozens of plastic fishing floats.
Please click HERE to continue reading article.
Eco-warrior sets sail to save oceans from 'plastic death'
written by Robin McKie
Sunday 12 April 2009
Billionaire banking heir David de Rothschild plans a remarkable journey in a plastic boat to highlight the enormous 'garbage patch' caught up in the swirling Pacific Ocean currents. Robin McKie reports.
In a few weeks, the heir to one of the world's greatest fortunes, David de Rothschild, will set sail across the Pacific - in a boat, the Plastiki, made from plastic bottles and recycled waste. The aim of this extraordinary venture is simple: to focus attention on one of the world's strangest and most unpleasant environmental phenomena: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a rubbish-covered region of ocean, several hundred miles in diameter.
The patch, north-west of Hawaii, was discovered in 1999 by researchers who found that its waters contained tens of thousands of pieces of plastic per square mile, the remains of rubbish caught in the region's circulating ocean currents. This pollution is now devastating populations of seabirds and fish that live in the region.
During his trip, which is being sponsored by the International Watch Company and Hewlett-Packard, de Rothschild will collect water samples and post blogs, photographs and video clips of the area, in an attempt to publicise the perils posed by plastic pollution.
To further highlight the oceans' plastic pollution problems, the 30-year-old environment crusader has designed a special catamaran with a hull made of frames filled with 12,000 plastic bottles. The cabin and bulkheads of Plastiki have also been constructed out of a special recycled material called srPET, made of webs of plastic.
"The plastic water bottle epitomises everything about this throwaway, disposable society," said de Rothschild, who trained to be a showjumper in England and who has trekked to both the north and south poles. However, he added that he was not aiming to demonise plastic, but was trying to highlight its alternative uses, as well as focusing global attention on the dangers posed to the ecology in regions such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The destinations for the craft's great voyage have been selected to highlight a variety of environmental threats, including overfishing and climate change. However, the most important part of Plastiki's route will be its voyage round the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific, where it will focus global awareness on the issue of marine debris and pollution.
The patch was discovered 10 years ago by the oceanographer Charles Moore when he was sailing off Hawaii. "I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic," Moore later recalled. Among the items he spotted were plastic coat hangers, an inflated volleyball, a truck tyre and dozens of plastic fishing floats.
Please click HERE to continue reading article.
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