Plastics Invading Our Oceans
BY CHERYL HURD
Surfing conjures up images of free spirits, at one with the ocean,
without a care in the world. But for Surf Lady Veronica Grey, it is the
world she so desperately cares about.
About a year ago, the waves called to Grey. Although the California
actress and filmmaker did not know at the time, the message they carried
for her, that day would change her life. She lay belly down on her
surfboard and paddled her way to depths beyond the breaking waves, where
she would wait for the perfect ride. On this day, the rhythm of stroke
meeting ocean was interrupted. She plunged her hand into the water, and
then recoiled. Between her fingers dripped a slimy substance.
“I remember the first time I felt it. I was paddling out on my board
and noticed a mushy, plastic-like substance sliding through my fingers.
It was gross,” she recalled, “and that’s what started my obsession with
the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”
The patch is located between Hawaii and California in the northern
Pacific Ocean, where millions of small bits of plastic have gathered in a
vortex of ocean currents known as a gyre. There are five of these gyres
in our oceans around the world. Grey said that 15 years ago the one in
the Pacific was about the size of Texas, and now is estimated to be
closer to the size of the United States.
“It’s sort of depressing facing what is
really happening to our planet,” she said, explaining that an estimated
25 percent of our planet is now covered with trash.
Since the areas in the oceans where the trash collects are so remote,
people tend to not think about it. “It’s a silent, deadly killer and
the problem is very scary,” she continued.
Grey, who surfs about twice a week, said while currents and winds may
collect the plastics in these gyres, the plastic has infiltrated every
part of the ocean. She said scientists estimate there are 46,000 pieces
of plastic in every square mile of ocean. She finds plastic around her
each time she enters the water.
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