Task force needed to pick up debris in our oceans
Posted August 8, 2012 3:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RICHMOND (NEWS1130) – An American-based group that tracks ocean debris says an emergency task force is needed to help clean up all the garbage in our waterways.
A crew from The Ocean Voyages Institute says some of the stuff in the water found off the coast of Oregon — an area dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch — is actually debris from the Japanese tsunami that is now making its way to our coast.
The Institute’s Mary Crowley says along with the task force, fisherman should be paid to help clean-up as they head on the water.
She sifted through tons of plastic and found even found a piece of a floating dock in the Patch, which is roughly twice the size of Texas. She claims it came from the tsunami.
“How tragic it is to be destroying our ocean’s ecosystem before we even understand it. I know that we can do a really significant clean-up,” Crowley stresses.
She adds the real difference is if people stopped using plastic water bottles and if the government stepped in to implement a ban on plastic bags.
“Three-hundred and thirty thousand metric tonnes of plastic produced a year, and roughly six per cent of that gets recycled.”
Crowley hopes the tsunami in Japan helps bring attention to the larger issue of ocean debris.
