Save The Plastic Bag

THE VOYAGE OF THE JUNK

In June 2008, a boat made out of waste materials, set sail from Los Angeles to Hawaii. The name of the vessel was the JUNK. The vessel arrived in Hawaii at the end of August 2008 after a three month voyage.

The North Pacific Gyre is an area of ocean where the world's highest concentration of marine debris has accumulated, because of a vortex created by converging currents. The purpose of the voyage was to demonstrate to the world that the North Pacific Gyre is full of all sorts of plastic debris and to support the case for banning plastic bags.

The sponsors of the project created a blog that includes videos of the voyage. You can view two of the videos below.

What the videos show is that if you drop a trawl in the Gyre and drag it through the water for 24 hours over a distance of about 50 miles, you will recover about as much plastic as it takes to fill the palm of your hand.

After the JUNK arrived in Hawaii, one of the crew members wrote in the blog as follows:

I presented our last gyre sample from our marine debris trawl. In a glass peanut butter jar were hundreds of fragments of plastic and zooplankton floating around. “This is what you get when you skim the ocean surface. 2/3rds of the earth is ocean, and is now a plastic soup.”

It is a misrepresentation to say: "This is what you get when you skim the ocean surface." They should have said: "This is what you get when you skim the ocean surface for 24 hours over a distance of about 50 miles."

After three months at sea, they appear to have caught one fish with plastic fragments in its stomach. One!

In our comments below on the two videos, we expose some highly deceptive editing, which calls into question the scientific integrity of the project. (See comments on images B3 and B4 below.)

The voyage was supposed to support the case for banning plastic bags. It achieved the exact opposite. It demonstrated that there are no plastic bags and very little plastic debris in the Gyre.

The voyage produced no evidence that would even begin to justify the destruction of the U.S. plastic bag manufacturing industry, which employs approximately 4,000 people in this country including many in California.

WATCH VIDEO A: THE 24 HR TRAWL

COMMENTS ON VIDEO A

IMAGE A1

Image A1 above is the trawl that the crew used to find ocean debris in the North Pacific Gyre.

LOOKING AT THE OCEAN, WE CANNOT SEE ANY MARINE DEBRIS WHATSOEVER. NO PLASTIC BAGS!

IMAGE A2

Image A2 above shows the crew removing the trawl after 24 hours. According to the blog, the vessel traveled as much as 58 miles in 24 hours. However, at various times the vessel traveled slower. We can therefore assume that the trawl collected debris over a distance of about 50 miles during the 24 hours in the video.

IMAGE A3

Image A3 above shows the trawl being pulled on board the vessel, after being dragged through the ocean for 24 hours and about 50 miles.

IMAGE A4

Image A4 above shows the crew showing us inside the trawl. There appears to be a tiny amount of debris at the bottom of the trawl.

IMAGE A5

Image A5 above shows the debris from inside the trawl being deposited in a pan.

THE AMOUNT IS PATHETICALLY SMALL AFTER A 50 MILE TRAWL THROUGH THE GYRE, THE WORLD'S HIGHEST CONCENTRATION OF PLASTIC DEBRIS.

IMAGE A6

Image A6 above shows the debris inside a glass jar. It appears that the floating debris includes two or more fish. The voice of the video mentions that the plastic was found among "jellyfish and lantern fish" which implies that they are in the jar. There are four pieces of dark blue hard plastic or plastic film suggesting that they came from a single item.

IS THIS PUNY AMOUNT OF PLASTIC GATHERED OVER A 50 MILE TRAWL A REASON TO DESTROY A U.S. MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY EMPLOYING 4,000 PEOPLE?

WATCH VIDEO B: JUNK MEETS ROZ SAVAGE

COMMENTS ON VIDEO B

IMAGE B1

Image B1 shows Roz Savage's boat which the JUNK met up with in the Gyre. Note the lack of any floating plastic or other debris.

IMAGE B2

Image B2 shows Roz Savage after she climbed on board the JUNK.

IMAGE B3

While image B3 above is being shown on the video, the voice on the video states: "We hauled in our surface trawl to show Roz what the marine debris issue looks like in the North Pacific Gyre.”

NOTE THAT THIS IS EXACTLY THE SAME IMAGE AS IMAGE A3 IN VIDEO A. THAT MEANS THAT ROZ SAVAGE WAS SHOWN THE RESULTS OF A 24 HOUR TRAWL.

WHY IS THERE NO MENTION IN VIDEO B THAT THIS WAS A 24 HOUR TRAWL? THE OMISSION MAKES THE VIDEO MISLEADING.

IMAGE B4

In image B4 above, we are allegedly shown inside the glass jar where the marine debris has been deposited.

WE HAVE SEEN THAT IMAGES A3 AND B3 ARE EXACTLY THE SAME. THEREFORE, THE INSIDE OF THE JAR SHOWN IN IMAGE B4 ABOVE SHOULD BE THE SAME AS THE INSIDE OF THE JAR SHOWN IN IMAGE A6. IT ISN'T. WHAT IS GOING ON?

IMAGE B5

While image B5 above is being shown on the video, the voice on the video states: "Meanwhile Joel hauled in the mahi mahi that he had promised her over the radio. We had a great meal together, traded food and water, took a few photographs, as the sun set we parted ways."

IF THE FISH IN THE GYRE EAT PLASTIC DEBRIS, WHY DID THE CREW AND ROZ SAVAGE EAT THIS FISH?