Documenting the North Pacific "Garbage Island"

Thomas Morton traveled with the R/V Alguita as they sailed the North Pacific Gyre to document the so called Garbage Island:

"Part and parcel with this was my attitude toward the Pacific Garbage Patch, or as we willfully misidentified it for the duration of our journey, the elusive Garbage Island. All the journalism I'd read about the patch had carefully danced around physical descriptions of the trash, leading myself and the rest of the shooting crew to fanciful visions of a solid, Texas-size barge of discarded Coke bottles and sporting goods. The idea that people had managed to fuck up a part of the world that nobody even visits, much less inhabits, and on such a monumental scale struck me as interesting and, to be honest, slightly awesome-sounding, but at the end of the day the impact of the mess on the rest of the world failed to register. I mean, sure, sea birds choking to death on deflated balloons and sea turtles whose shells have been completely deformed by soda can rings (click here for a picture of this if you want to completely ruin your day), all this definitely sucks, but so do a lot of things, you know?"

Below the fold is Part 3 of his 12 part video documentary. I find it interesting and informative, chilling at times. We will be bringing up the rest of the series as they get put up on his website (where you can see part 1 and 2). Its placed below the fold only because they tendency to drop the f-bomb alot (to save those with children around or at work).

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