Is the Garbage Patch in the Indian Ocean Really Just a Plastic Soup?

[runner]

Instead, the patches are more like a plastic soup. An island of trash would have been easier to clean up.

New garbage patch discovered in Indian Ocean

Scientists previously mapped huge floating trash patches in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but now a husband-wife team researching plastic garbage in the Indian Ocean suggest a new and dire view. "The world's oceans are covered with a thin plastic soup," says Anna Cummins, cofounder of 5 Gyres Institute.

Cummins and her husband, Marcus Eriksen, established the 5 Gyres Institute to research plastic pollution in the world's oceans. The team works in collaboration with Algalita Marine Research Foundation and Pangaea Explorations, two nonprofit scientific organizations devoted to marine preservation. They report that all of the 12 water samples collected in the 3,000 miles between Perth, Australia, and Port Louis, Mauritius (an island due East of Madagascar), contain plastic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/newgarbagepatchdiscoveredinindianocean"

 

[DaveC426913]

It is not a "new" view, it is just a more honestly-reported view.

Originally, it was reported as an island because that's what got media attention. They used to describe it as a mound of floating trash the size of <some state>. In fact, anyone who looked into the facts at all knew that it was just as high concentration of flotsam over a large area. I recall reading one quote from a scientist on-site saying he could see dozens and dozens (or was it hundreds) of floating objects within eyesight of the boat. Water samples also turned up high concentrations of plastic micro particles.

But ... Island?

It would seem that the original reporting spin was lost its panache, so they must re-spin it (as if its news) to whip up more attention.

 

[mugaliens]

And now, the media is reporting it as "http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100819/sc_livescience/oceangarbagepatchstillamystery" ," while honestly reporting it as "shrinking."

 

[RonL]

I'm glad I didn't fund a 3,000 mile sailing trip and only get 12 samples

 

[DaveC426913]

This is telling:

The term "garbage patch" does not necessarily mean a visible island of trash floating on the waves, researchers said.
...
Each half-hour net tow typically turned up just 20 plastic pieces equivalent to about 0.3 grams in all. By comparison, a U.S. nickel weighs 5 grams.

The vast majority of plastic pieces caught in the net turned out smaller than 10 millimeters,

A half hour of netting turns up particles smaller than 10mm totalling .3 grams.

Yep. Island indeed.