In 1997, Capt. Charles Moore was guiding his boat through the doldrums when he noticed some plastic debris floating in the water.
Though it didn't seem like an overwhelming amount of trash, he recorded log entries noting the debris in the water. Toothbrushes, bottle caps, eel traps, floating nets, soap bottles, and the list goes on.
When he reached solid land, Moore told scientists about his findings, then returned two years later to assess the extent of the garbage patch using more scientific sampling methods.
This started the story of the great Pacific garbage patch, plastic debris, chemical sludge and other trash the size of Texas that is trapped in a vortex between ocean currents.
Plastic Island is getting bigger.
15 years later Moore had returned to the garbage patch, along with five other people, to track its extent and study its impact on marine life.
A 2014 study found that the ocean's plastic may be disappearing, with much less debris in the water than had been predicted.
He found 100 times more plastic by weight with the drones, than they estimated from the trawl.
The team is also studying the impact of the plastic on marine life. So far, they have found that about 35% of the fish they sampled had swallowed some plastic.
Do your part and quit buying plastic!! To reduce the use of plastic water bottles in your home, consider getting a reverse osmosis unit. This unit will give you unlimited purified drinking water. There is no need to waste your money on bottled water and you will help save our aquatic wildlife. To learn more please call Eagle Industries Corp. at 1-866-222-9308.
