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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Not What You Think It Is The Swim | Dead Oceans | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Not What You Think It Is The Swim
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Summary
Core Theme
The ocean is facing a severe plastic pollution crisis, with vast amounts of single-use plastics accumulating in gyres, posing significant environmental threats and requiring urgent, multifaceted solutions.
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[Music]
Road scenes like this are a daily
reality for the crew of seeker on their
Pacific tract some estimates hold that
by 2050 there could be as much plastic
as there are fish in the ocean when
shown what seven [Music]
[Music]
please good luck with this net and so
it's not only one is it many nets that
are tangled together also some other
interesting items like this toothbrush
was trapped in the net but what is all
this junk exactly where does it come
from and is it really concentrated and a
giant Garbage Patch somewhere out there
Marcus Ericsson is an environmental
scientist who has made it his life's
mission to solve the problem of marine
plastic it's a global issue because
plastic accumulates in gyres large
circular currents that thread through
the world's oceans
what's leaving land heading out to sea
is all the single-use packaging it's two
straws the bags of bottles that cup
lenses stir sticks all this junk that we
used once in throw away a plastic bottle
in California we'll get to Japan in
about three to five years and come back
across the northern half of the North
Pacific that's spinning mass of water as
a gyre class of trash will migrate to
those zones and get stuck we actually
take boats out of nowhere we drag our
net behind the boat and account for
plastic particles that are floating
working with ocean modelers we can get
these regional maps of how much trash is
but answering even these basic questions
about marine debris has proven to be
surprisingly challenging in fact
everything we know about the proverbial
Great Pacific Garbage Patch started in
1990 when a container ship spilled
61,000 sneakers into the ocean realizing
that a lot of these sneakers would never
come to shore that they would just be
stuck in this vortex Curtis M Aspire
working with James Ingram jr. at NOAA
they're the ones that came up with the
term Great Pacific Garbage Patch
captain Charles Moore is often credited
with the first observations of the patch
the constellation of micro plastic
particles that captured the public's imagination
imagination
captain Charles Moore that described the
area he said look I'm in an area roughly
twice the size of Texas where I'm doing
my transects and that hit the media by
storm but aren't these islands of trash
they don't exist it's more like a smog
of micro plastic particles billions of
them very toxic over a wide area even
when they become brittle and break apart
plastic pieces persist unable to oxidize
or become waterlogged like metals wood
or paper all types of plastic are
designed to defeat natural decay in
general high density polyethylene number
two plastic is the most common plastic
and consumer use and it makes your soap
bottles that makes your toothbrushes
that makes many of the consumer goods
that float out in the garbage that's if
we think in terms of all the plastic
that's been produced since 1950 since
it's a scientific material hydrocarbons
it's probably still here today on the
planet dr. Sarah gene Roy a works with
dr. Nicolai maximenko and his team at
the University of Hawaii to tackle the
problem of tracking trash most of the
time we will find only bottle caps and
not the bottle itself because the batter
is made out of PEP
and it's sinking because the density of
PT is higher than seawater despite the
dramatic amount of plastic the crew of
seeker has encountered some estimates
hold that 99% of ocean bound plastic
waste is still unaccounted for
that's why Sara's team is working with
the swim expedition and the ocean
voyages Institute to tag and track the
waste B find the swing are using two
different protocols the first protocol
is a visual survey of all marine debris
this sea from the vessel itself and
whenever defined an object that is large
enough they will get closer to the
debris they will take pictures of it and
if there are numbers or lettering they
will share this information with us so
we can track back the origin of that
debris the second protocol is basically
to attach gps buoy on to marine debris
to track their movement in the ocean we
go to the net and target and then we
take out this and it's activate the
tracker once the tracker is activated
and enable scientists to both improve
models of how trash travels in the ocean
and learn where to focus cleanup efforts
most of the time Sara and her team can't
immediately tell where a piece of
plastic comes from but they can look for
other clues we need to use an FTIR micro
Raman spectroscopy this spectrum is
matching a spectrum that is found in the
library telling us what is the type of
plastics it's probably the dream of our
scientists to have a satellite and a new
instrumentation to be able to quantify
the amount of plastic floating at sea
the entire lifecycle of plastic is
poisonous its manufacturing process
depends on harmful chemicals and when
released into the environment it soaks
up even more toxins and transports them
far and wide including into our bodies
plastic can choke the oceans ability to
absorb co2 from the atmosphere
exacerbating climate change only 10% of
the habitat is on the land the rest of
90% of the habitats in the ocean it's
totally unexplored for the most part
imagining all the jungles all the
deserts all the savannas all the Rocky
Mountains the ocean would be 9 times
more than the idea that somehow it could
be 50% plastic 50% fish in a mere 30
years is horrifying the ocean is in
peril right now if we don't do something
that is going to reverse that and then
next few years it's going to be much
more difficult but the situation is far
from hopeless organizations are
developing innovative solutions to clean
up ocean plastic material scientists are
turning their attention to new packaging
solutions and consumers are making more
informed choices every day how can we
use our science to influence laws and
policy makers when you refuse the
singer's plastics it has an effect on
your neighborhood on your local
watershed and the ocean now seeing the
UN talking about it seeing companies
rise up and say we're going to zero
waste to see countries make commitment
to stop the flow of trash from land to sea
sea
I thought optimistic that we can solve
be sure to visit secret calm / the swim
to read daily updates from Ben LeCompte
track as progress in real-time and watch
more videos about the science happening
on board secret click here for this next
episode and don't forget to subscribe
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