Standup Zone Forum
General => Environment => Topic started by: stoneaxe on September 11, 2014, 05:59:02 PM
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http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1848433/the-ocean-is-broken/
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Wow. That's really sad.
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truly
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Very very sad indeed... Although around the world there are glimmers of hope and change. Here in Hong Kong they banned trawler fishing on Jan 1st 2013 within Hong Kong waters, and as someone who paddles a lot along and off our coastlines, the change has been dramatic in a short time with fish stocks returning. The problem with plastic and rubbish continues to increase though.. The trouble is... the ocean is a big big place..
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Some damage is likely irreversible, some isn't. The west coast is having unprecedented fish runs. the total return for Salmon and Steelhead this year in the Columbia alone will be more than three million fish. The last two years are the biggest runs in recorded history, by a HUGE margin. Anyone near Monterey can talk about seal life in the bay and points north and south.
But it's a hungry world, and it's tough to keep people away from any protein source. Amazing how much gets wasted though. Horrifying, really.
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Possibly part of the solution?
http://www.theoceancleanup.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcXS4bTxLjI&list=UUYXGHivsMPVU-h-M_wd9m3Q&index=1
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Cool to see that. I considered trying to design and build a similar system, but I planned to melt the waste, use some for fuel, and solidify the rest into higher density slugs that would sink. It would need to be completely autonomous and cheap to build for it to work. There would have to be thousands, perhaps millions of them. An alternate strategy is to mine the waste--it's mostly hydrocarbons, but I don't believe the density is high enough to make that practical. the horrifying pictures you see of gyres are actually too rare to be effectively mined. I think the system would have to live on a relatively low density.
I'm not enamored with that design, the barrier looks like a serious complexity and opportunity for failure. It would have to be self-deploying and self-repairing, as well and capable of withstanding local weather.
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OK, I read this: http://www.theoceancleanup.com/blog/show/item/responding-to-critics.html
These guys are pretty serious and they could be on an effective track. I'm going to send them some money and stop daydreaming about building a robot plastic harvester.