Feb 03 2009

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Clean Up

Posted by: Jennifer Zerwer

Many experts say the only hope to prevent the Great Pacific Garbage Patch from growing larger - the swirling mass of plastic and other waste is now 30 meters deep and twice the size of Texas - is to stem the flow of trash from land to sea.  However, one plucky non-profit is bucking the gyre. Beginning this year, the Environmental Cleanup Coalition (ECC) is rolling out the largest marine cleanup effort ever. By removing plastic debris from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the ECC hopes to improve the health of the North Pacific Ocean. 

The first step to cleaning up the world's largest floating dump? Raise a lot of money. Although the ECC doesn't cite the amount it's looking to raise in 2009, the money will go toward the purchase of a fleet of 20-30 ships between 300 and 600 feet in length. According the ECC,

"...the modified ships will create a cleanup and restoration laboratory called Gyre Island. By 2010 Gyre Island will be fully managed and staffed with mechanical engineers and technicians, ocean scientists and food system engineers and the community to support their cleanup and restoration work. The ships will be specially designed to drift net or otherwise pull trash out of the ocean, to filter ocean water of impurities and to process the salvaged plastic into useable products."

The ECC will surely face its fair share of obstacles fundraising for and creating Gyre Island, especially in this economic climate.  But seeing as pieces of plastic in this gyre absorb such pollutants as DDT and accumulate in the tissue of marine organisms all the way up the food chain, it's a noble effort we all stand to benefit from. 

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