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Japan's tsunami debris set for 10-year Pacific tour
Thick mats of floating wood and plastic will take between 1 and 2 years to cross the Pacific and then split into 2 large garbage patches.
Tue, Jun 21 2011 at 12:03 PM
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POLLUTION: The debris includes dense forms as diverse as planes, ships, cars and chemical tanks, which after sinking will become an inshore hazard for trawlers and the environment by leaking oil, fuel and industrial fluids. (Photo: ZUMA Press)
Debris sucked from the shoreline of Japan by the March 11 tsunami has embarked on a 10-year circuit of the North Pacific, posing an enduring threat to shipping and wildlife, a French green group says.
The 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami created an estimated 25 million tons of waste, "countless quantities" of which swept out to sea when the wave receded, Robin des Bois said.
The debris includes dense forms as diverse as planes, ships, cars and chemical tanks, which after sinking will become an inshore hazard for trawlers and the environment by leaking oil, fuel and industrial fluids, it said.
Thick mats of floating wood and plastic will take between one and two years to cross the Pacific and then split into two large patches, the group said in a report dated May 31.
One will head northwards parallel to the eastern Pacific coast, drifting on the Alaskan Current.
The other will head southwards, floating on the California Current.
Part of this southerly debris will split off, joining a gentle vortex of well-documented waste in the eastern Pacific that is called the Eastern Garbage Patch.
The rest of the southern branch will then head back across the Pacific under the North Equatorial Current, which will take it to the so-called Western Garbage Patch.
"The entire voyage around the North Pacific could take around 10 years," Robin des Bois said.
It pointed to many hazards for the environment, including the breakup of plastic into tiny particles called "plastic plankton" which accumulates in the food chain.
In March, a computer model devised by researchers at the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii predicted Hawaiian beaches would see the first pieces of debris washing up around a year after the disaster.
Copyright 2011 AFP Global Edition
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WHY DONT JAPAN CLEAN UP THIEIR OWN MESS SHURLY WE WOULD.
There should be a page started for this for a global cleanup of one of our most precious resources, the world's waters (the Gulf needs attention too). Maybe if enough of a hue and cry is raised and people CONTINUE to keep attention focused on this issue, something may be done.
yesw, plastic these days is a commodity, for convienience,therefore it should be taxed just like ciggarettes , boooze, sugar, and your income...a nice high tax on plastic will almost insure it gets to the recycling yard istead of yon hither out in the pacifac get my drift????
How much would you pay to start cleaning up the Pacific Garbage Patch? If we could get enough people to contribute a few cents per pound of plastic they toss every day of every year the problem could be addressed...but it's out of sight out of mind...
Bob,
I have thought the same thing. Every time I see plastic I wonder if it ends up in the Pacific Garbage Patch. I have even stopped using plastic straws when I go to to restaurants because of the thought of "Will this end up in the Pacific Garbage Patch??"
-Erika
My only problem with that is even if u gave 1 cent per pound of plastic you would be paying more than 10,000 a year...
So do you think a usage tax when you buy plastic products or on plastic recycling is the way to fund clean up?
I'll be long dead by the time the planet cleanses itself from the parasite known as mankind. Now off to dump a few quarts of oil into a storm drain.
and thats not to mention the irradiated nuclear power plant waste water that s been being dumped ito the ocean it goes on the same journey as the floating debris piles, then contaminates watever it comes in contact with! were all in trouble, globally, im afraid....
Because of our feeble attention span and extremely limited capacity for critical thought this story will be ignored by most mainstream media until it's literally on our beaches. Then it will be used as a tool to "temporally" increase taxes for the "clean-up"......
i blame al gore for blaming everything on agw
If someone could animate the process, that I would watch