Saturday, March 08, 2008

from the "today's science lesson" dept.


The ocean is fascinating. Relaxing and peaceful one moment; scary as hell the next.

I've been lucky. I've lived on both the Pacific and the Atlantic. And I've actually lived on both side of the Atlantic. To say this prairie boy is drawn to the big pond is an understatement.

Most people enjoy walking along the waters edge looking for treasure. A nice shell, a cool piece of wood or a message tucked inside a bottle.

Some people are really into beachcombing and they find all sorts of stuff. From Friday's Globe and Mail:

In 60 years of scouring the gnarled shores of Canada's western fringe, Neil and Betty Carey have salvaged just about every strange thing that will float.

There were the empty survival suit, the closet's worth of Japanese shoes, the whale carcasses and the Coast Guard rescue dummy - all washed up along the Queen Charlotte Islands, which intercept and strain the great spin cycle of Pacific currents like a giant colander.

In and around their home in Sandspit, B.C., the Careys have pack-ratted about 4,000 glass fishing floats and numerous messages in bottles from schoolchildren, cruise ship passengers and lovesick sailors.

The rest of the story is HERE.

Mentioned in the story is something called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I've heard of this before -- as the North Pacific Gyre. A vortex of ocean currents rotating clockwise in a circular pattern. What happens there is not good. Stuff goes in. Years later some stuff comes out. And it doesn't have a very good effect on the environment.

It's like the Garbage Triangle. Except nothing actually disappears.

CBS News did a story on the Gyre a few years go. It's fascinating stuff and would be cool if it weren't such an environmental nightmare.

And if you don't want to sit through a 30 second pharmaceutical spot before the CBS item, watch this video.



Class dismissed.

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