Plastic is Polluting our Lakes and Oceans
You’ve read about all the scary things out there in our oceans. Somali pirates, rogue waves, but how about the real dangers? Plastic.
Imagine the massive breadth and spread of our great state of Texas. Now imagine every square inch of that state piled high with trash. Bottle caps, cigarettes, cigarette lighters, tampon applicators, plastic nets, discarded flip flops, Frisbees, soda bottles, milk jugs, diapers, six-pack rings, busted tennis rackets, empty pens, shampoo bottles, empty squeeze bottles of jam, you name it. Now take that image, double it, and plunk into the water.
That’s what is floating around the eastern corner of a 10-million-square-mile oval known as the North Pacific subtropical gyre. Nicknamed the Eastern Garbage Patch, this buoyant stew of toxic pollution—most of which is plastic—is only one of five such garbage heaps caught in the swirling high-pressure currents characteristic of gyres. The others reside in the South Pacific, the North and South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. And each year, perhaps unwittingly, each one of us adds to plastic to the heap.
Generally, sailors are more environmentally aware than landlubbers. However, when back on land, we tend to resort to our old comforts, including using too much plastic.
For more information on how you can reduce plastic waste that ends up in our lakes and oceans, visit resources from organizations such as the Ocean Conservancy or the UN Environment Programme.
For more information, go to our Information Request page or contact CKIM Group at 1321-777-1707 or email: charterassistant@ckimgroup.com
