Algalita in the News 2008
2008
Eriksen Captures Prestigious 2008 SETAC / Menzie Environmental Education Award, November 16, 2008
The Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry is pleased to announce Marcus Eriksen and the Algalita Marine Research Foundation as the recipients of the 2008 SETAC/Menzie Environmental Education Award. This award recognizes an individual, group, organization or corporation that has made a major contribution in improving environmental science education. >>
WEND Magazine, Anna Cummins, Volume 3 Issue 4 Winter 2008-2009
Though I was fairly certain I would look back on this moment and wonder what I had been thinking, it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse: a month at sea, crossing the North Pacific Ocean in winter, a novice among an all-male crew of seasoned sailors. The mission, to investigate the rapid increase in plastic trash in our oceans, was one I’d been fascinated with for years. >>
Juneau Empire, Teri Tibbett, September 11, 2008
Stephen Blanchett, of the Yup'ik-Inuit funk band Pamyua, was glad to be invited to perform in Juneau for an event celebrating the ocean. The band's ancestors and relatives have lived off the sea. The connection is a deep part of their culture. >>
Capt. Charles Moore is honored in PLENTY magazine's Plenty 20
Since 1997, Moore’s nonprofit, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, has documented the “great Pacific garbage patch.” Also known as the Pacific Gyre, the 3.5 million tons of plastic floating in the ocean threaten organisms of all sizes, from whales to plankton. >>
"Raft of junk crosses Pacific in three months"
Tanned, dirty and hungry, two men who spent three months crossing the Pacific on a raft made of plastic bottles to raise awareness of ocean debris finally stepped onto dry land. >>
When you order your double latte to-go at the corner coffee shop, the empty cup and lid may end up in a giant pit of plastic ocean litter off the coast of California. Some cities and counties are so concerned about the garbage in the so-called North Pacific Gyre that they've passed ordinances to try to limit the amount of plastic in our lives. >>
Reporter's Notes: Sea of Plastic >>
ABC News, Darcy Bonfils and Imaeyen Ibanga, August 6, 2008
"Hidden, a 3.5 Million Ton Trash Heap Lies in the Ocean"
The world's largest trash dump doesn't sit on some barren field outside an urban center. It resides thousands of miles from any land — in the Pacific Ocean. >>
The New York Times, Donovan Hohn, June 22, 2008
Off Gore Point, where tide rips collide, the rolling swells rear up and steepen into whitecaps. Quiet with concentration, Chris Pallister decelerates from 15 knots to 8, strains to peer through a windshield blurry with spray, tightens his grip on the wheel and, like a skier negotiating moguls, coaxes his home-built boat, the Opus - aptly named for a comic-strip penguin - through the chaos of waves. Our progress becomes a series of concussions punctuated by troughs of anxious calm. In this it resembles the rest of Pallister’s life. >>
Los Angeles Times, Margaux Wexberg Sanchez, June 30, 2008
On the first of June, two men and a rabbit set sail from the port of Long Beach, bound for Hawaii, on a raft made of junk. Their cabin is the cockpit of a Cessna 310, white with a blue racing stripe, salvaged from the desert. It floats on a system of handmade pontoons -- 15,000 plastic bottles held together with recycled nets -- propelled by currents and wind. If it sounds dangerous and makeshift, that's the point. The pilots of Junk, as the vessel is called, want to get your attention. >>
"El mayor vertedero del mundo está en el océano Pacífico"
Una gran "sopa de plástico" que flota en el océano Pacífico con un tamaño dos veces el territorio de Estados Unidos es, según los científicos, el mayor vertedero del mundo. La mancha cubre cerca de 500 millas de la costa de California, rodea Hawai y se extiende hasta casi Japón, según publica The Independent. >>
Algalita featured on healthyliving.msn.com
(no longer available)
Captain Moore and crew journeyed to the ocean's biggest trash dump to get a look at thie environmental problem. >>
Message-in-a-Bottle project featured in Long Beach Press Telegram, March 27, 2008
(article available in archives only)
ABC News Nightline, Brian Rooney, March 26, 2008
If by chance you are missing a basketball, you may be glad to know that it has been found in the Pacific Ocean. It was there along with giant tangles of rope, sunken snack-food bags, a plastic six-pack ring and thousands upon thousands of plastic bags, billowing under the ocean surface like jellyfish.
And that's not all. >>
The Independent, Kathy Marks and Daniel Howden, February 5, 2008
"The world's rubbish dump: a tip that stretches from Hawaii to Japan"
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 Courier-Mail, Xavier La Canna, February 3, 2008
"Floating rubbish dump in Pacific Ocean 'bigger than US'"
It has been described as the world's largest rubbish dump, or the Pacific plastic soup, and it is starting to alarm scientists. It is a vast area of floating plastic debris. >>
Denver Post, Paul Miller, January 13, 2008
"We're drowning in an ocean of garbage"
I used to be embarrassed about spending time rinsing out plastic sandwich bags and reusing them. It's the kind of thing I'd do furtively at home, hanging the plastic to dry in the basement where nobody would see. But lately I discovered a good rationale for my obsession: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. >>
Algalita in the News 2007 Archive >>
<< Algalita in the News 2009 Archive
