Captain Moore Will Air on Colbert Report tonight

Make sure you watch the Colbert Nation tonight 1/6/10 at 11:00 on Comedy Central. Charlie Moore from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation will be talking about his 10 year anniversary of studying plastic pollution in the marine environment as well as his 10,000 nautical mile research cruise in the North Pacific this summer. I was fortunate enough to be there for 3,460 NM of it. If you love the ocean, you will love Charlie Moore and his mission.
http://www.colbertnation.com/home

Also, Charlie Moore will be presenting at UNC Wilmington 8pm Thursday, 1/14/10 at the Lumina Theatre in the Fisher Student Center free and open to the public.

Funniest Find in the North Pacific Gyre

I've been doing a lot of editing from my 20 hours of footage from the North Pacific Garbage Patch. The video I have selected is from our being about 1200 miles from Hawaii and even further from any other land mass. I had been playing a game trying to pluck 10 large objects from the the ocean while traveling at 3 knots in choppy seas. Many things floated by but they had to be in reach of a handheld fish net in order to attempt to pull them out. The task takes timing as well as strength depending on (1)how many feet in the air the boat is launched from the wave action and (2)the size of the object being retrieved.

My chance to pull item number 10 within one hour came after I had asked the ocean to send me something different, something really interesting, something that would catch a viewer's attention. By the time I pulled it out I remember saying to myself, "And she has a sense of humor." I think the ocean is trying to tell us something. The item may reference how she feels we are treating her. What do you think?

It's offical - Captain Moore will Present in Wilmington, NC

That's right! Captain Charlie Moore, from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, is going to present at University of North Carolina Wilmington on January 14th at 8pm at Lumina theatre. Captain Moore is the crusader who brought worldwide awareness to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. He has the longest continuous research on plastic accumulation in the North Pacific gyre and logged 10,000 nautical miles this past summer of which I was there for 3,400 miles of it! I'll keep you posted as it unfolds.

What's with the bottle and can counter?

Check out the bottle counter on the right. It represents the number of bottles NOT going to recycling. They are going in a landfill, on the ground, into our waterways and/or out to our oceans. When I was out in both the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, plastic drink bottles were the most recognizable item in the seas. Plastics that could be used to make polyester for clothing as well as carpeting. It's as much a resource as coal, petroleum oil, and electricity. Did I say electricity? Yes, burning plastics that cannot be recycled is another way we can reuse plastics. Bermuda, an island that has exhausted its landfills, burns trash for energy. Although it has CO2 emissions, it is no worse than burning coal and in many newer incinerators, like the one in Wilmington, NC, they can burn much cleaner than coal. So do the right thing, put your recycliables in the bin and help slow down the counter on the right, and help make something out of one time use plastics!

To learn more: http://www.ncconservationnetwork.org/mainblog/2009/06/03/plastic-bottles-must-be-recycled-in-nc

Links

Please forgive the brain purge. I've seen a lot of information that I'd like to share somewhere, and I hope you find this useful in your thoughts and conversations.

The UK has launched a new site as a forum to discuss a lot of marine debris and plastic issues. We don't have a lot of answers, so this is a great way to see what others are thinking across the pond. View the Plastics 2020 Challenge


Sea turtles are eating our plastic. See information from Australia here. Their preliminary studies indicate that more than 35% of the sea turtles studied died from eating trash.

A different view of marine debris, also from Australia, can be found here. Turtles aren't the only ones that are impacted by marine debris.

Bonnie found this video a couple weeks ago, and I keep marking the email she sent with the link as "unread" so I could find it. Some fish are found in bottles, some bottles are found in fish. Either way, it's not pretty.

International Coastal Cleanup photos

I love the International Coastal Cleanup. They have Flickr account so participants can upload their photos from the event. This set is from the Dominican Republic. Take a minute to watch the slide show. It's impressive.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bracuta/sets/72157622299794959/show/


-posted by Jennifer

What BBC and I have in Common

One of the beaches I visited while in Hawaii and later wrote about is Kamilo Bay, Hawaii. A BBC film crew had been led down to this beach just like I had been by Noni and Ron Stanford. What I was told, the producer broke down when seeing it. It, too, made my knees weak to see this remote beach covered in everyday use plastics and fishing gear. Imagine the esteemed beautiful beaches in Hawaii getting pummeled with plastic trash. As Captain Moore states it comes in from the Pacific Rim meaning from all the continents that surround the Pacific. I saw it with my own eye. Items from Japan, Korea, China, Canada, and the US, to name a few, littered the beach and that's only the recognizable stuff. Broken fragments visibly washed in with each wave.

Here's the thing. Of all the problems the ocean is experiencing right now this is the one with the easiest fix. Use less plastic, reuse plastic items you already bought and buy stuff that doesn't come in plastic like a bar of soap instead of body wash in a plastic bottle. It's a start! Oh and everyday, just pick up one piece of trash that isn't yours. It'll make you feel good.