Boldly Going

Every once in awhile someone comes up with a really good idea to deal with problems:

...Because of their immense vastness, the oceans often mask how much humans might be negatively impacting marine ecosystems. This may be especially true of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a gyre in the North Pacific Ocean where debris is thought be accumulating at a gathering point of oceanic currents. Just how much influence human-produced plastic and other debris is impacting the North Pacific Gyre, roughly a thousand miles off California’s coast, has been speculated in recent news reports and other media. Scientifically, very little is known about the size of the problem and threats to marine life and the gyre’s biological environment. From August 2-21, 2009, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, with support from the UC Ship Funds and Project Kaisei, is dedicating one of the first scientific missions to explore and analyze the problem of plastic in the North Pacific Gyre. The graduate student-led Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) aboard the Scripps research vessel New Horizon will explore threats from several angles, with research that includes surveys of plastic distribution, investigations of floating plastic, and assessments of impacts on sea life. Visit SEAPLEX at: http://sio.ucsd.edu/Expeditions/Seaplex/

The Project Kaisei team will embark on a multi-week expedition to the “Plastic Vortex” from the West Coast in order to:

* 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...

After all, most plastic is derived from fossil fuel. Give Exxon (or someone else) a money incentive to clean the floating garbage out of the ocean. Now that's a really good idea.