Search for downed plane highlights ocean trash problem (CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

By John D. Sutter
CNN

(CNN) -- The massive amount of garbage in the ocean likely complicates the search for the remains of an Air France flight that went missing Monday near Brazil, oceanographers who spoke with CNN said.

Earlier this week, investigators said they had located pieces of the plane in the southern Atlantic Ocean, which might have given them clues to the origin of Air France Flight 447's crash.

But on Thursday, Brazilian officials said what they had found was nothing more than run-of-the-mill ocean trash.

This highlights a little-seen environmental problem: Scientists say the world's oceans are increasingly filled with junk -- everything from large items like refrigerators and abandoned yachts to small stuff like plastic bottles.

Much of the ocean trash is plastic, which means it won't go away for hundreds of years, if ever. And the problem has gotten so bad that soupy "garbage patches" have developed in several locations, called gyres, where ocean currents swirl.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/06/05/marine.debris.crash/index.html

An unusually long article, for CNN.



Lots more depressing stuff:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/searchresults.html?domains=democraticunderground.com&q=ocean+and+trash&sitesearch=democraticunderground.com&client=pub-7805397860504090&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&cof=GALT%3A%23008000%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%23336699%3BVLC%3A663399%3BAH%3Acenter%3BBGC%3AFFFFFF%3BLBGC%3A336699%3BALC%3A0000FF%3BLC%3A0000FF%3BT%3A000000%3BGFNT%3A0000FF%3BGIMP%3A0000FF%3BFORID%3A11&hl=en

[Captain Hilts]

1. I'm very glad that this problem is getting some attention. Thor Hyerdal saw trash islands at sea.nt

[Turbineguy]

2. We used to pick up

huge amounts of debris in the saltwater strainers and coolers. Shower curtains are bad for causing loss of power when ingested into the condenser.

[Captain Hilts]

3. Navy?

[Turbineguy]

4. Commercial.

Containerships mostly.

[Captain Hilts]

5. Ah, then you've seen even more seatime. nt