The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

(Image retrieved from “Great Pacific Garbage Patch | PROJECT OCEANUS.” PROJECT OCEANUS | Cleaning Up Our Oceans, One Gyre at a Time. Accessed , 2016. https://projectoceanus.wordpress.com/tag/great-pacific-garbage-patch/.)

The Ocean is full of plastics, but there are areas where concentrations of rubbish and plastics swirl and gather together. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered by Charles Moore in 1997, but it wasn’t till 1999 that they realised the full extent of the patch.

Charles Moore says “Our research found 6-to-1 plastic to plankton by weight in 1999. We went back last year and found 46-to-1 plastic to plankton – the weight had gone up, the volume had gone up, the number of pieces had gone up. Every decade, it’s getting close to 10 times worse…What we are doing in the ocean with the breakdown of plastics into microscopic nanoparticles is carrying on an uncontrolled experiment in toxic drug delivery to every organism in the ocean with zero monitoring and zero controls.”

According to the BBC, “Over the last 30 to 40 years, millions of tonnes of plastic have entered the oceans. Global production of plastic now stands at 288 million tonnes per year, of which 10% ends up in the ocean in time. Most of that – 80% – comes from land-based sources. Litter gets swept into drains, and ends up in rivers – so that plastic straw or cup lid you dropped, the cigarette butt you threw on the road… they could all end up in the sea.

The plastic is carried by currents and congregates in five revolving water systems, called gyres, in the major oceans, the most infamous being the huge Pacific Garbage Patch, half way between Hawaii and California.”

The ocean gyres are a system of circular ocean currents formed by the wind and the rotation of the planet.

Here is a video describing the polluting of plastics in the oceans.

Here is another video showing a TED talk.

 

References:

“The Dutch Boy Mopping Up a Sea of Plastic.” BBC News. Accessed , 2016. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29631332.

“Great Pacific Garbage Patch | PROJECT OCEANUS.” PROJECT OCEANUS | Cleaning Up Our Oceans, One Gyre at a Time. Accessed , 2016. https://projectoceanus.wordpress.com/tag/great-pacific-garbage-patch/.

“Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” National Geographic Society. Accessed , 2016. http://nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/.

“Captain Charles Moore | Earth Island Journal | Earth Island Institute.” Earth Island Institute | Welcome. Accessed , 2016. http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/charles_moore/.

“TED – the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” YouTube. n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qvf_zesN9Y.

“Great Pacific Garbage Patch – Ocean Pollution Awareness.” YouTube. n.d. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qT-rOXB6NI.

Quotes from:

“The Dutch Boy Mopping Up a Sea of Plastic.” BBC News. Accessed , 2016. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29631332.

“Captain Charles Moore | Earth Island Journal | Earth Island Institute.” Earth Island Institute | Welcome. Accessed , 2016. http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/charles_moore/.

 

Lets build a giant wave shall we?

After many ideas were discussed, discarded then discussed again we were going round and round in circles.
We began looking at images of the plastic waves and whales by Codsteaks, and we had a massive moment. This was our ‘Aha’moment.
We suddenly thought we need to go massive. Our project needed to be large and imposing. Our work was all about the plastic pollution in our oceans, the more we looked and researched the problem of plastics, the more it seemed huge and overwhelming.
It is a problem that many would feel they can’t do anything about. How do you deal with such a problem, where there are more particles of plastic in the oceans than plankton?
Our Light Nelson installment needed to produce this feeling of immensity, of feeling swamped by the plastics.
A giant wave made of plastic bottles and other bits of plastic was the way to go. We want it to be of a size to be above people’s heads when they see it and wide. Below are our sketches of the wave and rough measurements.

Environmental Topic Research

Whilst researching the topic of plastics in our oceans, I found some interesting and distressing news articles. A study has just been released in the New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, where they have found that the ratio of  micro plastics  is 45 particles per kilogram of sand. The study covered the areas of Southshore, South New Brighton, New Brighton, Amberley Beach, Akaroa Harbour, Corsair Bay, the Heathcote River mouth, the Avon River mouth and Governor’s Bay. The picture below indicates the areas of highest and lowest concentrations of microplastics.

“This study has shown us that even though we are geographically isolated in New Zealand, we certainly are not free of microplastic pollution,” said PhD student and researcher Phil Clunies-Ross.

To read the full article see this link

Another useful article to do with the impact of plastics on marine life can be found here, http://www.trueactivist.com/sperm-whales-found-dead-in-germany-stomachs-full-of-plastic-and-car-parts/.

The negative impact our consumption of plastics is having on our world and those that live within it, is hard to look at. No one wants to feel responsible for the terrible state our oceans are in, or to see the deaths that are connected to this pollution. I find it hard to comprehend the amount of waste that we are creating. It seems too big a problem, but I think it is a problem that is surmountable.

A Plastic Ocean website is extremely informative on the situation with plastic waste, it also provides ideas on how to help and change our plastic consumption. The website has a clip from their film A Plastic Ocean, it is hauntingly beautiful and scary at the same time. The images had a big impact on me and I felt more propelled to do this project and raise awareness on this topic.

References:

“Is This Christchurch’s Most Plastic-polluted Beach? .co.nz.” Stuff. Accessed May 9, 2016. http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/79617786/is-this-christchurchs-most-plasticpolluted-beach.

“Plastic Oceans Facts.” Plastic Oceans. Accessed May 9, 2016. http://www.plasticoceans.net/crisis/.

“Sperm Whales Found Dead In Germany, Stomachs FULL Of Plastic And Car Parts.” True Activist. Accessed May 9, 2016. http://www.trueactivist.com/sperm-whales-found-dead-in-germany-stomachs-full-of-plastic-and-car-parts/.

Various Ideas (sketches)

As a group we have decided to create the work for Light Nelson focusing on the issue of plastics in the oceans. We have had many ideas, most a variation of another, and all with the same theme and interaction, that being an area where the audience can walk through an environment, dimly lit, with various sizes or chips of plastic. The elements that are included in most of our installation designs are, light (which is a major part), reflections and projections of light, plastic, water, shadows, low lighting and public interaction. 

The most important ideas we had though were water, reflections, hanging things, recycled plastics and being able to walk through the installation. Our location to be able to hang plastics and for the public to walk through is also very important.

 

 

 

Images are our own.