The Plastic Ocean Part II

A while back, I posted about how there is a huge amount of plastic out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It turns out, a few people decided to go out with the man who has made this tragedy public, to film the grossness that's out there. From reading the articles, it seems like you would get to the gyre and there would basically be a floating plastic dump. It turns out, the gyre is full of broken down bits of plastic, so at first look, it doesn't look that bad. It's when you trawl with a small mesh net that you see the real problem. Check out this video of their trip (Warning: bad language on the video). Each segment is between 4-5 minutes long, but if you just want to see the problem, segments 9-12 are the ones to watch. As a scientist, I am always skeptical of things people seem to be blowing out of proportion. It's especially hard for me with the video because there are no times or dates on the actual tape. However, due to the passion and expressions on these people's faces (who are clearly NOT actors) makes me believe what they are seeing is real.