"Underwater, they are typically covered in barnacles, while on top, they are generally deprived of marine life. "Good examples of this are buoys or floats'', the spokesperson said. However, if the plastic sticks out of the water, UV radiation will stop any biofouling. This means that very few nutrients reach these gyres, resulting in less algae growth and plastic that remains relatively clean in appearance."īiofouling typically only occurs on parts of objects that are completely submerged underwater, they said. "However, these gyres are far away from land and dominated by downwelling of water, not upwelling. "There's a reason these subtropical gyres-where we are currently busy catching plastic-are also called the 'deserts of the sea.' Nutrients typically come from rivers or from the upwelling of deeper waters," they said.
#OCEAN CLEANUP PATCH#
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is what is known as 'oligotrophic,' they said, which means it is very low in nutrients. The Ocean CleanupĪ spokesperson for The Ocean Cleanup, told Newsweek that the clean plastic can be explained through "various factors." The Ocean Cleanup uses trawlers to catch the plastic. "It's too brightly colored, nothing is growing on it, and they didn't catch anything but plastic." "The imagery they showed is just not at all what it would look like if one were to truly drag a big net through the ocean and scoop up plastic that had been floating there for years," he said. Similarly, David Shiffman, marine conservation biologist at Arizona State University, told Newsweek he thought the footage "raised eyebrows." although I am not an expert in biofouling, others had similar questions."
#OCEAN CLEANUP FREE#
He told Newsweek: "The plastic they picked up, most of which they say is 10 to 30 years old, is so clean and free of the organisms that usually grow very quickly on anything in the ocean. Trevor Branch, associate professor at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington, initially raised his suspicions in a tweet, claiming it was "odd." Others raised concerns that there appears to be no bio-fuelling on the plastic, which refers to the growth of organisms such as barnacles and algae.įor those of you raising an eyebrow at the suspiciously clean plastic being pulled from the ocean by the Cleanup people, compare 👇 - Katie Matthews February 15, 2022 However, the latest footage has raised suspicions among experts, with many claiming it is staged.Įxperts wondered why the hauled up plastic looked so clean, despite some having been in the ocean for decades. The Ocean Cleanup claims it have developed nets and technology that avoid the amount of bycatch it their nets and fish can easily swim in and out. Bycatch, the accidental capture of sea life such as fish, is often an inevitable part of fishing and plastic clean up operations, as the modern nets and fishing gear are efficient at catching everything in their path. The organization has established a system using large trawlers to maximise the amount of plastic caught. It uses trawlers to catch the plastic, attached to the back of its ships. It has the goal of removing 90 percent of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by 2040, with plans to scale-up its current operations over the coming years. The Ocean Cleanup was founded in 2013 by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat. It then becomes trapped in the middle.Ī 2018 study estimated there was roughly 79,000 tons of plastic in the patch. Plastic is brought to the garbage patch by the currents, however settles when it gets to the center of the gyre, which is a calm and stable part of water.
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