Ghost Net

September 22, 2007

According to Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, the ocean is constantly knitting. She weaves things together, in general sewing similar materials with a gentle "rock and weave" stitch. Today, we discovered a hundred pound ball of mixed fabric and thread for "King Neptune's quilt." We had reached "the calm," the center of the largest, stable high pressure system in the world, and we were spotting and netting off the bow- all sorts of pieces of plastic debris that had floated to the surface. We spotted a small ghost net and threw a buoy over to mark the area, but, on turning the boat and going back, we couldn't relocate it after a 1/2 hour search. The next net we saw was considerably larger, at about 100 pounds out of the water.
Bloggers: Dr. Lorena M. Rios Mendoza, Dr. Joseph Goodman, Captain Charles Moore
From Dr. Joeseph Goodman, Ship's Physician
The Ghost Net: When I was swimming toward the ghost net in the clam of the ocean I could see it right on the surface, but as I viewed the net up close, my wave action from just swimming near the ghostnet, caused the net to sink fast. It took about 10 mintues for this large collection of waste, mostly from fisherman to return to the surface. How much more is down there that we cannot see? We carry three solar powered satellite position transmitting buoys onboard from Airborne Technologies. I called Tim Veenstra at Airborne and received permission to deploy one of his valuable floating position transmitters. It was tied to the ghostnet and released at 36 37.208 N, 144 55.417 W. In the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration spends 2 million US dollars per year to remove 60 tons of derelict fishing nets and gear in an effort to save the critically endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal, over 200 of which have become entangled since records were kept. By the use of tracking buoys like the one we deployed, NOAA plots the location of congregations of these killers of 100 thousand marine mammals per year in the North Pacific, and coordinates retrieval efforts. Our noon position was 36 38 N, 144 34 W.

From Dr. Lorena Rios Septiembre 22, 2007 Hoy al igual que cada dia hubo algo especial, hoy encontramos una red o varias redes de las llamadas "gost nets" o redes fantasmas porque no necesitan al pescador. Bueno lo importante e impresionante es que encontramos toda esta serie de redes enredadas que simulaban un arrecife artificial en medio del Giro del Pacifico. Para todos fue impactante este encuentro y tambien preocupante, porque tenemos que hacer algo para no seguir danando a la naturaleza. Tambien encontramos mucho macroplastico y en los muestreos de arrastre con la malla llamada manta estamos encontrando altas concentraciones de microplastico. Hoy tambien nos sucedio un hecho incredible, vimos una pequena red con cuerdas, ola marcamos con dos boyas y cuando nos disponiamos a sacarlas del oceano, no las encontramos!, buscamos y buscamos y nada. Se lanzaron tres nadadores y nada no encontramos nada. La pregunta aqui es, tan rapido se puede mezclar el plastico en la subsuperficie del mar? Estara el mar sumergiendo la basura plastica?.

Student Questions:
Hi! My name is Leana and I am from George Washington high school on Guam. I am taking a marine biology class and we are currently learning about the effects of plastic in the ocean. The results of your manta trawl is scary. I just wanted to ask a quick question. What do you think our chances are of getting the plastic out of the ocean?

Leana, this is a very good question and I believe if we all do our part, we can eventually arrive at a solution. The most important thing now is to learn about what damage plastic waste is doing to our ocean and to our world in general. Information is a decisive factor in solving these types of problems, and students like you can contribute to their eventual solution. We need to put pressure on governments, so that they, along with industry, centers of higher education, like the current hub of marine debris research, the University of Hawaii, Hilo, and non-profit organizations like Algalita Marine Research Foundation can unite to keep our planet healthy. Unfortunately, we cannot remove the uncountable plastic fragments mixed up in the ocean, and only if we stop putting plastic in, will the ocean spit them all out.

Que posibilidades hay de que podamos sacar el plastico del mar?

Leana esta es una muy Buena pregunta y personalmente creo que si, si todos ponemos un granite de arena este problema puede llegar a tener solucion. Lo mas importante por ahora es saber cual es el dano que esta produciendo la basura plastica en los oceanos y en el planeta entero. La informacion es un factor decisivo en la solucion a este tipo de problemas y estudiantes como tu pueden aportar mucho a que esto se haga realida. Tenemos que poner presion en nuestros gobernantes para que junto con las industrias apoyados por universidades, y organizaciones no gubernamentales como AMRF unamos esfuerzos en mantener sano nuestro planeta. Desgraciadamente, no podemos sacar los innumerables pedazos de plastico que estan intermezcladas en todo el oceano. Y solo si paramos de ponerle plastico, puede el oceano escupirlos todos.

Kriszel from George.Washington high school, Guam asked "What do you expect to accomplish through your efforts in studying plastic in the ocean?How would the information you discover help contribute to future studies?"

The results that we obtain will serve as a guide for governments to study the plastic debris problem and develop legislation to limit the use of products that harm us and Mother Nature.

Que pretenden lograr con sus estudios de plastico en el oceano? Como pueden sus estudios contriuir a estudios en el futuro?

Primeramente mantener la informacion a todos niveles de la poblacion, para que juntos hagamos un cambio en nuestros habitos de mal uso del plastico. Despues empezar a encontrar alternatives que nos ayuden a todos y buscar formas mas amigables con nuestra naturaleza.

Firstly, we hope to inform all levels of our population so that we can all work together to change our bad habits and poor use of plastics. Secondly, we will begin looking for alternatives that will allow all of us to develop products and ways of life that are more nature friendly.

Los resultados que obtengamos sirven de guia a los gobiernos para poner restricciones a las industrias y a la poblacion en general de no hacer uso de productos que causan dana a los humanos y a la Madre Naturaleza.