Tracking Trash: Chapters 1–3

According to these experienced sailors, this stream followed a distinct west-to-east path across the ocean and its movement could help or hinder sailing ships.

Consider the fact that cities in Europe are much warmer than cities located at the same latitude on the opposite side of the Atlantic Ocean, in North America.

These changes, which can include depleted fish populations and increased rainfall, have a large impact on the lives and livelihoods of the people who live in this area.

These changes, which can include depleted fish populations and increased rainfall, have a large impact on the lives and livelihoods of the people who live in this area.

Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer shares these lofty goals, although his methods for understanding the ocean are, well, just a little unusual.

First of all, Curt’s experiments rely heavily on flotsam and jetsam, floating trash that falls or is thrown from ships at sea.

First of all, Curt’s experiments rely heavily on flotsam and jetsam, floating trash that falls or is thrown from ships at sea.

“We can see the movement of trash by the great ocean currents and we can see the disintegration of the trash over time...and we can learn from it.”

When a tanker spilled its oil into the ocean, Curt helped the cleanup crews determine what direction the oil slick would float and how it would disperse over time.

When a tanker spilled its oil into the ocean, Curt helped the cleanup crews determine what direction the oil slick would float and how it would disperse over time.

The inside, or hull, of one cargo ship can hold thousands of containers, and it is not unusual for hundreds more to be stacked on the deck.

The answer lies in a planet-wide grid system that has been created to allow a precise definition of any spot on earth. The grid system is made of imaginary lines that run east to west (these are called lines of latitude) and north to south (these are called lines of longitude) around the globe.

The lines that record longitude, on the other hand, are not parallel and are called meridians.

The reference meridian is the one that passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England (this location was chosen by international agreement in 1884); we call this line the prime meridian.

The other ninety-eight were either destroyed, damaged at sea, frozen into ice floes, or washed ashore in unpopulated locations where they were never found.

In a hypothetical experiment, OSCURS predicts very different pathways for sneakers dropped at the same location in different calendar years.

These results highlight an interesting property of surface currents: variability.

Curt and Jim had taken advantage of a man-made disaster and from it derived solid scientific observations.

In less than twenty-four hours, the cardboard packaging had deteriorated enough to release the package contents.

Despite what you might think, Jim wasn’t worried about this discrepancy.

“And when we attend these fairs much happens by serendipity.”

Curt was elated.

In the intervening years, on the other hand, many fewer toys washed ashore.

Since the Orbison beachcombing logs showed that the pair had spent a consistent amount of time scouring beaches each season, Curt suspected that the toy-recovery pattern had something to do with the path the toys were following in the ocean.

He theorized that the toys were circling around the Gulf of Alaska, as OSCURS simulations had suggested they would, and that each circle was taking two years.

With his typical flair, Curt tested this idea by drilling holes into a rubber duck and throwing it into his test tank: a bucket of seawater.

Many of these reports don’t hold up to close scrutiny (you would be surprised how many other rubber ducks get lost at the beach).

Curt confers with beachcombers at a Washington fair (top) and on an Alaskan beach (bottom).

Both reports suggest that OSCURS trajectories were accurate and that some of the tub toys had managed to move into the Bering Sea and complete a treacherous journey across the Arctic Ocean.

Scientists call these creatures plankton (a name derived from the Greek word for “wandering,” planktos), and they can be grouped in many different ways.

Once fertilized, the pollock larvae drift in the ocean currents for two weeks until hatching.

During their planktonic existence, baby walleye pollock are extremely susceptible to predators, including their own parents.

If this was true, then bad pollock years would correlate with years in which current movement did not carry the planktonic walleye pollock babies far enough from their parents.

Since female pollock spawn in the same ocean location at approximately the same time each year, scientists were able to use OSCURS to simulate the movement of the currents in the spawning area every year for the past one hundred years.

Since female pollock spawn in the same ocean location at approximately the same time each year, scientists were able to use OSCURS to simulate the movement of the currents in the spawning area every year for the past one hundred years.