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Subscribe to RSSThe trash accumulating in the Pacific Ocean – scientists estimate there are 1.5 million tons of tsunami debris alone -- is arriving on the West Coast. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.
By Miguel Almaguer, NBC News correspondent
LOS ANGELES -- The first wave has arrived. And now more and more tsunami debris is washing ashore on West Coast beaches seemingly every day.
From large docks, to a motorcycle, to boat buoys, states like Washington and Oregon are seeing most of the debris. But the hunt for larger masses of debris is underway, not on shore but instead deep into the Pacific.
NBC News was aboard the ORV Alguita , a southern California research vessel, as it departed Long Beach for one if its regular debris surveys. Within just a few minutes captain and researcher Charles Moore yelled out, “We have some plastic here!”
In his net he quickly collected a handful of confetti-size pellets, or what the captain calls “dangerous … and deadly” debris that can be swallowed by marine life, and are toxic to the environment. Unfortunately the find is fairly common offshore southern California. But what many are unaware of is the “virtual garbage dump” swirling around in the middle of the Pacific.
The “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a floating pile of debris too large and scattered to accurately measure, has been growing for the past 40 years -- and now the tsunami debris is making it even bigger. There’s some debate on where it begins and ends, though researchers agree it’s hundreds and hundreds of miles off the West Coast.
Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Institute recently took NBC News on his vessel to hunt for debris. He discusses the dangers microplastics pose to marine life and ocean ecology.
As explained by Moore, the garbage patch is essentially “big chunks of trash that are floating out in the ocean” … so big, in fact , Moore adds they are “creating new kinds of habitat.” Scientists say the garbage patch is a landfill of ocean debris that’s come together in a vortex of currents. Everything from fishing nets, to plastic bottles, and household goods that have been dumped or washed away converge in a system of currents that meet in the middle of the Pacific. The vortex draws debris floating in ocean currents and pulls them together, lumping them together where they can float for years.
An estimated 1.5 million tons of tsunami debris is believed to be in the Pacific. And while experts believe most of it will sink or never make it to shore, a good portion could add to an enormous problem out of sight … but not out of mind.
Related stories:
- Who foots the bill for cleaning up Japan’s tsunami debris?
- Dock is largest tsunami debris to arrive from Japan
- VIDEO: Tons, literally tons of debris
- VIDEO: Japan basketball washes up in Alaska
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Why not discharge a subsurface nuke of .75 to 1 megaton and melt one heck alot of that isle?
Because we're using them to clean up that mess below New York.
because it will just blow it up into the sky then it will just come back down and land in the ocean again
Hey KevinOffSite since all humankind is such a toxic threat to Mother Nature be a chivalrous gentleman and kill yourself.
Do the right thing, just do it.
Gotta love that conservative right wing christian attitude!
First off, you presume that which I am not. Second, I'm simply saying that those that tend to worry most also tend to be the ones that want to fix a perceived problem by using government to aggress their fellow man with coercion rather than do anything that directly impacts their own personal sense of well-being.
I not suggesting that Kevin should be killed [by other parties] I am saying that if in his mind that the collective of humankind is a problem then perhaps he should have the balls to take one small step to correct the problem and reduse the human footprint that stands so ominously on the throat of Mather Nature.
It's called PUT UP or SHUT UP...
If Kevin (or Kentucy Dave) are so concerned look in the mirror before pointing the finger!
what we really need is sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their frickin heads...
If all the countries around the world put the amount of time, money and effort they put in their stupid war games on the high seas this mess could be cleaned up in no time ,even if it were a thousand miles in diameter!!!
The same goes for billions spent on space exploration, let's fix what we funked up on earth first before we go out and funk up the rest of the universe
Wait...so what are all those environmental groups doing with their time and money? Instead of wasting it why don't they go do something productive. This would be a perfect opportunity for them to show their usefulness and love of nature - by helping to clean it up.
Where I live, more and more cities are banning plastic bags. Which helps the long-term goal to stop producing this mess, but someone is going to need to clean it up to really make progress. And it sure as heck won't be the U.S. government - at least not anytime soon seeing as they have no money and take forever to get anything done.
I like what comedian George Carlin said about pollution.
Basically, he stated that human beings cannot do anything to hurt the Earth. Giant asteroid strikes haven't even bothered the planet. We can pollute the air, water and soil all we want. We can kill off as many species as we want. We can even set off every single nuclear weapon there is and the Earth will just keep incorporating these changes into the environment.
What we are doing is making the environment that is beneficial for us alot worse and living will be alot harder for us.
A few solutions. Reduce the pile with a controlled burn. Booms around a chunk of it. Divers in the water can divert sea turtles and any other precious marine life through safe capture and release. The oil slick I imagine is part of it would be the igniting fuel. All it takes is a few ships firing flares into the pile for ignition. Presto one large BBQ party on the ocean. The heat should fuse the plastics into larger pieces making it easier to collect later when it eventually washes onshore. This would eliminate the pelleting that marine life is ingesting.
Meanwhile on land increase controls for trash. I don't think it would be much a hardship for beach visitors to take garbage bags along with them and while there fill these bags with collected trash. Everyone doing their part would reduce the amount. School children on field trips, criminals incarcerated in prisons. Individuals assigned parole, troubled teenagers could all be compelled to minimize trash.
What of 'adopt a highway' instead adopt a zone of a beach - but no signage posted. Signage would defeat the purpose.
did anyone not read that there is and always has been a line of trash in the Pacific where currents converge? So, the fruits and nuts on the West Coast already created a trash line that is growing w/ the Jap trash. And, have the Jap's apologized to the USA? NO WAY -we are the apologists these days and I am certain Barry or Hillary will at some point apologize for the trash floating our way.
Any Ocean has several trash lines where tides and currents converge -this is a story about nothing and is kept alive by the tree huggers!
Boy, that Toyota sure gets good gas mileage on the ocean!
If ever there was a case of "Pictures or it didn't happen!", this is it. It's not that I disbelieve the garbage is there, it's that I can't believe MSNBC would run a story like this and not include an aerial photo of this place out in the ocean. That's like reporting a story about a fire and not showing the burned down house!
We move mountains now a days why can't we get a few of these countrys surounding the Pacific that helped contributed to this mess together and start to clean this up and crack down on those who just simply dump trash into their waters, I know some of this mess came from Japan and was not their fault due to the tsunami but if we all pitch in together we all could clean this up in no time flat.
The Japanese Government should be paying for the disposal, or return, or recycling costs of all debris from the Tsunami that is coming into U.S. Territorial waters (I realize that much of the smaller debris could come from other places). Large, easily identifiable debris, like small or larger boats/ships, etc. We, and countries all over the world gave or loaned Japan tens of millions of dollars in recovery assistance. We shouldn't burden local/state or the federal gov't with paying again. Instead of Japan continuing to develop new defence technology that they won't share with their allies, or spending $30 million more on whaling research, or supporting their monarch, they should clean up their own mess. If the situation were reversed, Japan would certainly expect us to be paying them for every single penny it cost them to pick up debris. And, for the record, I'm talking about the Japanese Government, not the general public.