Second Massive Garbage Patch Found In Atlantic

Atlantic Garbage Patch: Pacific Gyre Is Not Alone

MIKE MELIA | 04/15/10 05:30 AM | AP

Garbage Patch

FILE PHOTO: This image provided by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows a patch of garbage in the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 11, 2009. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 announced findings from an August expedition to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, about 1,000 miles west of California. The patch is a vortex formed by ocean currents and collects human-produced trash. (AP Photo/ Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Mario Aguilera)


SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Researchers are warning of a new blight on the ocean: a swirl of confetti-like plastic debris stretching over thousands of square miles (kilometers) in a remote expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.

The floating garbage – hard to spot from the surface and spun together by a vortex of currents – was documented by two groups of scientists who trawled the sea between scenic Bermuda and Portugal's mid-Atlantic Azores islands.

The studies describe a soup of micro-particles similar to the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a phenomenon discovered a decade ago between Hawaii and California that researchers say is likely to exist in other places around the globe.

"We found the great Atlantic garbage patch," said Anna Cummins, who collected plastic samples on a sailing voyage in February.

The debris is harmful for fish, sea mammals – and at the top of the food chain, potentially humans – even though much of the plastic has broken into such tiny pieces they are nearly invisible.


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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/15/atlantic-garbage-patch-pa_n_538514.html

Not your typical household gargage. I suspect if they inspet the stuff they can figure out somewhat where it came from.

Pictures like that give the Faux news turds ammo..I hope they either replace it or pull it ASAP.

over thousands of miles? And this is a file photo.

I've been on the open ocean enough to see the crap caught in thermal breaks first hand.

It's the file photo that gives me heartburn.

I see a net and marking gear. There is a good chance that it was ripped free by another ships prop or kneel. The owner of the net didn't just toss it away. And yes lost gear is a hazard to marine life

The rubbish referred to in the article is dumped on purpose, whether by bulk or carried to the oceans after some slob tosses a bottle into a ditch along side a highway.

It's a shame the picture doesn't relate to the premise of the article.
YMMV