Pacific Ocean Rubbish Dump

Created by sue. Last modified on 2008-05-30 19:06:12
Topic: Environment
Countries: Hawaii

Biofuelled 78 foot trimaran Earthrace is heading into Hawaii on Day 24 of her 24,000 nautical mile round the world record attempt. She is more than 1800 miles ahead of the 1998 world record pace set by Cable and Wireless and is less than hour away from her mid-Pacific refuelling stop.

Kiwi skipper Pete Bethune has degrees in Science and Engineering and he did his MBA on renewable energy. He is keen to convince the world that biofuel is a viable transport alternative, but not by chopping down forests for palm oil. Earthrace is using cutting edge fuel technology- a single fuel tank load could take Earthrace 24,000 km at 6 knots.

"There’s a lot of rubbish in the water here", Pete says, as they dodge around another plastic bottle in the water. “Our course is 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 meters or so there’s another bit of crap in the water, and anything resembling a buoy (like a plastic bottle), we need to skirt around. It is a giant rubbish dump of plastic and polystyrene, that unbelievably, is the size of Texas, and we’re currently on the southern tip of it,” he reports.

“What actually happens, is the current that passes down the West Coast of America picks up rubbish and debris along the Californian coast, and then drags them all the way out here, some thousand odd nautical miles away. The current here then drops under the surface, leaving behind all the rubbish. It joins the giant Californian rubbish dump that remains here year after year, and gradually increases in density as more rubbish drifts in”.

Hear their report at:www.powerboat-world.com