A unique speed boat out to circumnavigate the earth in record time, ran into floating garbage 1000 nautical miles at sea.  Unthinking Californians leave trash on the beach that gets picked up by the tide and carried out to sea.

The Earthrace is a trimaran that runs solely on biodiesel.  The 78 foot long boat is out to beat the powerboat world record for traveling around the globe.  While setting a new record the boat will also have a 0 carbon effect, making it a very green trip.

As Earthrace entered its sixth leg and 24th day, they ran into the massive garbage dump in the Pacific.  Captain Bethune, described the situation this way:

“It’s a giant rubbish dump of plastic and polystyrene the size of Texas, and we’re currently on the southern tip of it.  Our course on this leg has been more like a drunken student weaving his way home after a bender, rather than a race boat in a straight line – it seems every hundred metres or so there’s another load of rubbish in the water that we need to skirt around.”

Along with the trash that already exists in the middle of the Pacific.  More trash gets added daily as the tide brings it out and abandons it to float in this growing growing pile of garbage.

Clean up would be a major undertaking, requiring several hundred boats at least.  But no one seems overly interested in cleaning up the mess since the perpetrator’s don’t see the damage they are causing.  Sightseeing boats don’t go out that far and once it gets swept off the beach by the tide no one thinks about it.

No one likes visiting a trashy beach or stepping on hidden bottles or cans.  Letting the tide sweep it out to see is not an answer to the problem, it just creates a bigger problem somewhere else. 

All of that trash in the middle of the Pacific can not be good for the whales, fish, and other sea creatures that have to swim through that muck. 

Regardless of what Ocean coast you may visit, remember to pick up after yourself.  You may not see the damage your left over trash is causing but someday it will come back to haunt all of us.  Oil spills aren’t the only things damaging Oceans.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 12:57 pm under Green Technology.

Read more entries by Susan Wilson.
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