I cannot believe that I am only hearing about this Plastic Soup now, more than a decade after it was first discovered by a man on his yacht. In 1997 a man sailing 500 nautical miles off the coast of California discovered this giant mass of plastics floating just under the surface of the Pacific Ocean. This mass is so gigantic that it actually spans close to Japan, putting Hawaii just South of the middle of this mass of floating garbage. People have called it "Plastic Soup." Items are beginning to break apart and degrade in this landfill of the sea, but plastics actually take years to completely degrade. We have a mass of garbage caught in ocean currents swirling around in the Pacific. Congratulations, Plastic Junkies. (The article reporting on this from 2008 is enclosed in the title to this Blog.)
While no evidence has been found about the long-term effects this could have on the ocean, there are ongoing reports of whales, fish, and birds dying due to plastics caught in their systems. The fish and birds mistake the plastics for fish, so they gobble up our less than precious disposables. Just imagine us accidentally eating our plastic fork that came with our lunch. I am pretty sure our systems wouldn't be able to handle it well either. Maybe we need to educate the big and little sea creatures. Rather than teaching them to do tricks, let's teach them the difference between a fish and a plastic bag. Anyone for a deep sea seminar? OK, so which is simpler educating the fish or educating the humans?
