Plastic – is all around us. It’s in our homes, our offices, our vehicles, our yards, our playgrounds. We use it to package food, bottle products, bag produce, make dinnerware and utensils, make toys…
Plastics pose a significant threat to our planet. Come listen to Charles Moore speak on this subject.
“Our Synthetic Sea”
Biological Impact Study of Pollutants Accumulated on Plastic – Plastic Alternatives Degradable in a Marine Environment
Charles Moore founded Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) in 1994 to focus on the “coastal ocean”, specifically on the restoration of disappearing giant kelp forests and the improvement of water quality through the preservation and re-construction of wetlands along the California coast.
In 1997, his focus dramatically changed. While returning to California from Hawaii aboard his 50-foot catamaran, the Alguita, he chose to chart a course through the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. This area of the Pacific is a circulating rotation of ocean currents and is normally avoided by sailors due to its light winds.
In the eastern portion of the Gyre he encountered enormous amounts of trash, mostly plastic, scattered across the area. Now commonly referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it is a vast plastic soup (from the surface down through the water column) containing everything from large abandoned fishing nets (ghost nets) to plastic bottles, bottle caps, toothbrushes, containers, boxes, to miniscule particles of plastic that have either been reduced from larger pieces by wave action or sunlight (photo degradation).
Since 1997, Captain Moore has made numerous research voyages to the Gyre aboard the ORV Alguita, resulting in a body of authoritative research publications and data and educational programs. During the most recent voyage in the summer of 2009, AMRF’s area of study extended to the International Date Line which revealed more of the same – plastic sludge in our trawl samples.
During their celebration of Algalita’s 15th anniversary in 2010, AMRF have participated in voyages to the North Atlantic and Indian Ocean Gyres. They will participate in a voyage to the South Atlantic Gyre later this year and plan to go to the South Pacific in 2011, expanding their research to include all five major gyres worldwide. AMRF are confident their research will lead the way to a new era of consciousness regarding the issue of plastic marine pollution. Part of their current research is focusing on a better understanding of the magnitude of our plastic “footprint”, including the effects of fish ingestion of plastic on human health.
Your invited to come listen to Charles Moore speak on behalf of the Huntington/Seal Beach Surfrider Foundation Chapter.
When?
August 19th @ 6pm
Where?
Don The Beachcomber
16278 Pacific Coast Hwy.
Huntington Beach, CA 92649
Mahalo,
Surfrider Foundation
