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If 46% of the Pacific garbage patch is fishing nets doesn't that make it easier to clean up? Some of the nets will have disintegrated but surely some must have

If 46% of the Pacific garbage patch is fishing nets doesn't that make it easier to clean up? Some of the nets will have disintegrated but surely some must have large pieces of them intact? All the photos of the patch I've seen tend to be individual plastic items - bottles, cups etc. – so wondering if anyone's seen different EDIT: Found this https://mymodernmet.com/ocean-voyages-institute-great-pacific-garbage-patch-cleanup/ https://mymodernmet.com/ocean-voyages-institute-great-pacifi... the majority of 103 tons dredged up were fishing nets etc.

marliechiller 6y ago
the problem is - where do you put it and who takes on that burden?
- bbarnett 6y ago
  While ocean pollution is a problem, a big one, the article above says '103 tonnes' of garbage was hauled up. And this, over 48 days, and a large section of sea?! That's literally nothing. How much garbage do you think a small city collects from residents daily? Google shows variety here, but that garbage trucks can handle between 10 to 20 tonnes per load. Again, not saying it's good. There's clearly a lot more down there. But I dislike stats/info in articles which seems like a lot (eg tonnes, They dredged up tonnes!! Over a large, massive section of sea, over more than a month.). Worse, they talk as if they actually did something: we are continuing to help restore the health of our ocean, which influences our own health and the health of the planet. No, they're doing nothing. It's like I walked to a garbage dump, picked up a can, then took it home and recycled it. "I created a cleaner world!", uh, yeah, sure.. good job? It's just a meaningless tiny bit of nothing.
ORioN63 6y ago
How do we account for selection bias though? I think it's likely that nets are easy to catch. Floaty, big surface area, lots of anchor points.
t0mbstone 6y ago
I think one of the biggest problems is that the fishing nets are made out of thin plastic wire which then degrades over time and ultimately fragments into microscopic pieces of plastic that fish and other sea life end up eating. The reason they eat is is because the microscopic particles floats in the water column like "snow", just like all of the other tiny things that fish eat while they swim around.

marliechiller 6y ago

the problem is - where do you put it and who takes on that burden?

bbarnett 6y ago
While ocean pollution is a problem, a big one, the article above says '103 tonnes' of garbage was hauled up. And this, over 48 days, and a large section of sea?! That's literally nothing. How much garbage do you think a small city collects from residents daily? Google shows variety here, but that garbage trucks can handle between 10 to 20 tonnes per load. Again, not saying it's good. There's clearly a lot more down there. But I dislike stats/info in articles which seems like a lot (eg tonnes, They dredged up tonnes!! Over a large, massive section of sea, over more than a month.). Worse, they talk as if they actually did something: we are continuing to help restore the health of our ocean, which influences our own health and the health of the planet. No, they're doing nothing. It's like I walked to a garbage dump, picked up a can, then took it home and recycled it. "I created a cleaner world!", uh, yeah, sure.. good job? It's just a meaningless tiny bit of nothing.

ORioN63 6y ago

How do we account for selection bias though? I think it's likely that nets are easy to catch. Floaty, big surface area, lots of anchor points.

t0mbstone 6y ago

I think one of the biggest problems is that the fishing nets are made out of thin plastic wire which then degrades over time and ultimately fragments into microscopic pieces of plastic that fish and other sea life end up eating. The reason they eat is is because the microscopic particles floats in the water column like "snow", just like all of the other tiny things that fish eat while they swim around.