The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Explained This Saturday

See how many pieces of plastic you can find in this small sample of stuff that washed ashore after a storm. This is all over Ocean Beach in San Francisco. Photo by Kevin Krejci via Flickr.

Sustainable Saturdays - Sustainable Silver Lake's free lecture series - hosts "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and How We Can Help Shrink It" this Saturday, August 6, at the Silver Lake Public Library.

This patch of floating plastic debris exists midway between San Francisco and Hawaii and covers an area larger than the size of Texas. Sea creatures and birds mistake the plastic bottles, plastic bags, toys, fish nets and other wrongfully disposed of objects as food and often die after consumption. Roughly 3.5 million tons of trash form the patch.

Presented by Dave Weeshoff of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and Senior Ambassador of Heal the Bay, the lecture will detail the plastic plague in the world's oceans, notably the Northern Pacific, including the causes, consequences and hopeful solutions.

Weeshoff reveals information concerning the garbage patch in an interview with Reef Addicts.

"What we can do about it comes down in summary to the basics that we learn in kindergarten, and that is reduce, reuse and recycle. Every piece of plastic that has ever been manufactured is still on the planet somewhere, and far too much of it is in the oceans."

Following the screening is a raffle for a ZAPino 100% Electric Scooter, perfect for climbing the rolling hills of Silver Lake.

Saturday's lecture begins at 11am.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@laist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Lauren Lloyd in Arts & Events on August 2, 2011 4:20 PM

Comments [rss]

jrb

And this picture is just a figment of your imagination...

http://www.google.com/imgres?i...

Whatever Whenever

So, this is in the middle of the ocean, and the guy is on a canoe?
Looks like Bangladesh to me.

jrb

You're right they NEVER put smaller boats on larger ones. This is all just hoax to make you feel guilty every time you don't recycle a plastic bag or bottle, or throw a disposable cigarette lighter in the gutter.

Mark Fitzsimmons

Agreed. Although it's a problem, most of the plastic is not visible to the naked eye. Seems like he's very careful not to disabuse the overly credulous "reporter" of the notion it's a big garbage pile. People tend not to believe in things they can't see. Except for gods and demons.

esarby

This particular lecture might be perpetuating this, but it's actually not true that the "trash vortex" is composed of actual, physical trash. It's more like an area of the ocean that has a higher density of dissolved plastic than others, and even the amount of plastic there is barely detectable (though still troubling). It's not true that "Roughly 3.5 million tons of trash form the patch." http://swfsc.noaa.gov/publicat...

exbaytriate

hear hear.

i applaud this guy's attempt at educating the public and his animal activism, however, i hope he's not perpetuating pseudo-science with this lecture.

anyone who actually attends care to report back?