Garbage in, garbage out: But to where?

(Michelangelo's Jonah)

Along with all the other mysteries of the deep lies a new one:  Where has all the garbage gone?

The Wall Street Journal reports that the “Great Pacific garbage patch” seems to be shrinking.  Since plastic debris continues to be dumped into the ocean at an alarming rate, scientists had assumed that this “Pacific trash vortex” would instead “grow twice as big every decade.”

This incredible shrinking effect amounts to “99% less plastic waste in the world’s oceans than previously thought.”  Since an estimated “45,000 tons of plastic” enter the oceans each year, this shrinkage is simply baffling.

Before indulging plastic-bag habits once again, consider this possibility:  Are the fish gobbling them up?  If so, what happens when we gobble them up?  

Could it instead be the leviathan effect?  After all, today’s “Jonahs” might need something to wrap their

sticky pride in while trying to conquer life’s greatest mysteries.

Resources

http://blogs.marketwatch.com/themargin/2014/07/01/its-a-mystery-where-has-99-of-the-oceans-trash-gone/

Copyright July 3, 2014 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved