8 Responses to Air France Flight 447 and Our Oceans

1. bluebutterfly June 5th, 2009 at 2:34 pm «

   ” New Report Released: A Rising Tide of Ocean Debris and
   What We Can Do About It

   ” The report features the Marine Debris Index, the world’s only state-by-state and country-by-country breakdown of the amount and type of trash in the ocean and waterways collected on just one day. This report also zeroes in on the startling impacts of ocean trash on wildlife and its connection to the challenge of global climate change. Along with the report’s recommendations, the Marine Debris Index provides a roadmap for eliminating marine debris altogether by reducing it at the source, changing behaviors that cause it, and supporting better policy.”

   Download The Report “

   http://www.oceanconservancy.or…..icc_report
• BlueCrow June 6th, 2009 at 8:52 am «

  Downloaded and read. :-) Thank you!
• bluebutterfly June 6th, 2009 at 1:19 pm «

  You’re welcome. This, too, says a lot about the condition of our oceans.
  ************

  ” A “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

  The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world’s largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting “soup” stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

  Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “trash vortex”, believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: “The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States.” “

  The “soup” is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk – which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags – is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.

  Mr Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. He had steered his craft into the “North Pacific gyre” – a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it.

  He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. “Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by,” he said in an interview. “How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?”

  Mr Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his business interests and became an environmental activist. He warned yesterday that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade. “

  http://www.independent.co.uk/e…..78016.html
2. BargainCountertenor June 5th, 2009 at 3:32 pm «

   Finding the black boxes (orange boxes?) is a different issue. If the crash didn’t destroy them, they will give a sonar signal for about 30 days following activation. But they’ll have to find the impact area first.

   But your point is well made: we’ve used the oceans as a dumping ground. If things are properly weighted (so they stay where they’re dumped!), subduction zones are a reasonable place to put stuff. In a few 10,000 years it will be in the mantle, not on the seabed. But leaving stuff floating around is just irresponsible.
3. Jkat June 5th, 2009 at 6:04 pm «

   very very deep water on the projected path .. they may never recover the flight recorders …
4. BooRadley June 6th, 2009 at 5:07 am «

   Recommended.

   IIRC, the “Miracle on the Hudson,” changed a lot of thinking about water landings. Prior to 1549, there was grave doubt that a jet could remain intact and afloat after a water landing.

   I’ll grant you landing in the Atlantic is a lot tougher than the Hudson, but with all the GPS, how can you not track an airliner down to a manageable search area?
• MartyInNH June 7th, 2009 at 6:07 am «

  If the A330 got into a dive, for example due to thunderstorm activity and loss of control, it would quickly reach a speed at which the airframe’s structural integrity would be overcome and parts like the wings could very well break off. If it then broke up at altitude, the pieces would fall to earth by gravity and be dispersed over a wide area. In such a scenario, there is not a “water landing”.

  There is also very little ability to precisely track aircraft over the Atlantic. There is no radar coverage and spotty position reporting. I am actually amazed that so much has been found already.
5. Kassandra June 7th, 2009 at 8:02 am «

   People were wondering why the space walk to fix the Hubble Telescope was so dangerous. Then we all found out that our orbit is filled with junk too.

   Apparently, someone is waiting for “mommy” to clean up after them, both in the oceans and in space.