Gyre, Gyre, Earth's on Fire

Has anyone ever heard about the North Pacific Gyre? Would anyone like to know about the North Pacific Gyre? Ha! What's a gyre you might ask? Let's start out with a pretty little picture, shall we? Yes. Let's.

North Pacific Gyre



Now I would like to apologize for anyone who felt that the title of this post was a bit on the alarmist side. Alarmism (Is that a word?) is for extremist and I'm only extreme about one Thing. (As always, we'll touch upon that on another day.) But I will admit to a mild bit of alarm when I first saw this picture. And when I found out that this was only one of five gyres in our earth's oceans that alarm grew just a bit more. I mean, what we're looking at here is an enormous swirling of plastic trash twice the size the man floating there.

Getting back to exactly what makes up a gyre. According to wikipedia (an increasingly reliable source): A gyre in oceanography is any large system of rotating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements and are caused by the Coriolis Effect. Do we REALLY wanna know what the Coriolis Effect is? *pause* I didn't think so. Either way, what's swirling around inside these things is more important. Here's a clear picture of what that is.

Pretty, right. (I know. I'm terribly sarcastic. Any comment regarding that would be welcomed... well, maybe welcomed not really the right word.) Yes, what you are seeing here is a multiple bottle caps, what looks like the fuel canister on a lighter and maybe some little plastic tabs. What happens is that when these birds fly over the face of the ocean they see these things floating and think that it's food. It's really unfortunate. Well, let me leave you with one more disturbing picture and next time we'll take about what's being done about this fascinating, man-caused phenomenon.

Heck of a way to end a post, right? Well, this is where we'll pick up next time. Until then... 

Esjaybee