the forest

i wouldn't call it a "preserve" its actually pretty gross. there's garbage everywhere. typical... here's a few of the good ones from my shoot. these are all digital. i have to go get my holga pics developed today. im more excited about those.

Something fishy

i was using a disposable and my moms camera for some of the crisper ones, but i like them so whatever.... also haven't edited them yet either. all photos taken at the shedd aquarium in chicago on 7/17/09 just in case you were wondering.

Playing with toys

The Garbage Patch

There is a garbage epidemic in the ocean caused by humans and it is affecting us, as well as many of the things we have come to depend on. The world’s oceans are so vital for our existence, but yet we are abusing this great resource that we have. This is because we are unaware of how our garbage is being handled and where it eventually ends up. Think about how many times you have flicked a cigarette butt in to the street or thrown a candy wrapper out of your car window, then think about everyone in the world doing that as well. It is a massive amount of stray litter that usually ends up getting washed down storm drains and in to the streams, rivers, lakes and eventually into the ocean.
This phenomenon is going widely unchecked by the world’s governments and environmental agencies. It is affecting one of the most valuable natural resources that the world has. The oceans contain 97% of the world’s water. (Vogel, 5) This is important for humans because the ocean water interacts with the atmosphere and produces rain all the weather of the world. Most of the world’s oxygen is produced by the oceans many different algae’s, kelps and other plant life. The ocean’s plankton is also a main food source for many fish and marine mammals, which are a main food source for humans. The oceans plankton is the largest biomass on the planet, and the great majority of Earths biomass, 90% can be found in the ocean (Hoffman). It is where life began, and we need to learn more about it and how to treat it to keep it functioning properly.
The oceans are used, and also abused, to benefit our complex global society. The many ships that navigate along the currents have been dumping their refuse overboard (Burns). This, along with litter that has flown out to the sea from rivers and streams from all over the globe, along with cargo that falls overboard the ships have been accumulating in the ocean for centuries. Some washes up on beaches, some gets broken down by the water and the sun in to small particles, but it never really goes away.
In the early 90’s a research vessel named Alguita, captained by Charles Moore was sailing through an area of the Pacific when he noticed the water had an abundance of plastic floating on it. The crew dubbed this area The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (Burns). A garbage patch is formed in an area of the ocean called a gyre, which is where ocean currents swirl into each other to create a huge vortex. The vortex carries the garbage that we leave and it collects in the gyre. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located in the northwestern hemisphere and is a subtropical gyre. This area is where Charles Moore first discovered the magnitude of our mess in the ocean. This garbage epidemic has gotten little attention in the world of science. This past June the Alguita set sail for the Great garbage patch with research teams in hopes of better understanding what we are doing to the marine ecosystem and how to fix it (Moore)
The goal of the research is to find out the effects of the plastic debris on marine life, and also how it affects humans. We produce the debris (anything from washing machines and boats to water guns and remote controls) use them and throw them away. More times than not, they are not recycled, just tossed away for someone else to worry about. They make their way out into the ocean, where gyre collects them and the sun, over time, breaks down the plastic in to little nodules by a process called photodegredation (Burns). The suns UV rays will cause the plastics to turn brittle and eventually break it down in to very small fragments(Vogel). These never go away and are commonly mistaken for food by many aquatic species. Plastic bags are mistaken to be jellyfish, colorful plastic toys are thought to be fish floating around, and are all ingested by various animals. Animals can be poisoned, choked or they can think they have had their fill and not eat anymore, thereby starving themselves. Animals are washing up on shore with garbage in their bellies, or becoming tangled in the debris (Burns)
This has a big effect on the ecosystem. There are countless examples of how the trash in the ocean negatively affects the various animals and plants living there. A fish could get lead poisoning from swallowing a fishing weight, a bird gets its legs caught in a plastic fishing line and can’t fight off predators, ect. It comes in to the food chain on many levels. The primary producers called phytoplankton, microscopic plants that get their energy from the sun are blocked from the nutrients by the plastic floating on top of the ocean. Zooplankton consumes phytoplankton, but they are similar in appearance to the plastic particles and enter the food chain here. The invasiveness of the garbage throws off the natural balance of the ecosystem at a microscopic level (Vogel).The researchers and scientists who are concerned with this particular aspect of pollution are trying to figure out the magnitude of the problem before they can think about solving it for good.
The Alguita has been using a device called a manta trawl to collect water samples in various areas of the gyre. A manta trawl is a device that collects water samples and can accommodate debris as small as 1/3mm. It has “wings” that allow it to stay at the surface, where most of the plastic is concentrated. The research team skims the surface of a specified area with the trawl then collects and sorts the samples. The team has been taking a comparison of plastic debris to plankton since 1999 (Moore). Plankton constitute a wide range of ocean life, they are the drifters of the ocean. They include various larval forms of fish, crustaceans and mollusks, as well as bacteria and plants.
The results of the experiments are startling to say the least. In 1999, there was 6lbs of plastic for every 1lb of plankton (Moore). It would be impossible to strain out all the plastic and other garbage that has been collecting all these years. Right now there is a growing awareness for the world that we live in. Granted, it is somewhat trendy but hopefully the environment will not go out of style as quickly as fashion does. People have been cutting back on plastic use in their daily lives. You see more and more people using totes instead of plastic grocery bags, bringing reusable containers for drinks at coffee shops. These small steps can have a big impact and help stop and reverse the problems in the ocean and elsewhere in the world.
Works Cited

Burns, Loree G., Tracking Trash, Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion.

Hoffman, Jennifer. Science 101 Ocean Sciience. Irvington, NY: HarperCollins, 2007.
pgs 5-16.

Moore, Charles. "Algalita Marine Research Foundation." AMRF. http://www.algalita.org/index.html (accessed July 12, 2009)

Oceanographic Research Vessel Algulita. http://www.orvalguita.blogspot.com/

Vogel, Carole G., The Relentless Sea, Human Impact.

grew some