Re:First 100k KG Removed from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
by 0x_rs on Monday July 25, 2022 @10:36PM
(#32233618)
About 40% of the GPGP is made of fishing nets.
Re:First 100k KG Removed from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
by SantalBlush on Monday July 25, 2022 @10:15PM
(#32233483)
It's not clear what you're suggesting. Do you think it would be better to leave the plastic in the ocean, or remove all of the seaweed from each piece of plastic before removing the plastic?
Second question: do you have some prior knowledge in this area that informs your opinion?
Re:First 100k KG Removed from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
by londons_explore on Monday July 25, 2022 @10:18PM
(#32233505)
I've just spent a bit of time in boats, and sometimes have hauled big patches of weedy garbage aboard just for fun.
Some types of weed entangle like spaghetti with one-another so just grabbing one corner and pulling means you can haul a few hundred kilos of weed into a boat by hand.
Most floating garbage gets covered in weed, shells, and even a few small fish or corals pretty quick. I really don't see how the garbage could be separated without destroying the weed and ecosystems attached.
Doing it at scale without some research to be sure it's the best plan seems like a really bad idea.
How much (by weight) is plastic? How much is seaweed? How much is ocean water which is stuck in the plastic now?
Things like a 1 gram bag could easily get 100 grams of weed growing on it, which absorbs 1kg of water. It's now very difficult to weigh that 1 gram which is now only 0.1% of the total mass.
It's also not obviously clear that removing the weed-covered bag from the environment is a good plan, if you're removing 100 grams of biomass for each gram of plastic removed.