Gyre Explained!

Melissa McGinnis is with Leslie Moyer from The 5 Gyres and she tells us what a gyre is.

So a lot of people have heard of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch or The Plastic Ocean, or the Texas size floating island in the middle of the Pacific ocean from California to Hawaii. In fact, there are five not just one oceanic gyres. What a gyre is is a system of rotating currents that naturally happens within our oceans and since the advent of a lot of non-biodegradable waste, they wind up attracting toxins that don't go away.

Leslie's organization, The 5 Gyres Institute, has researched into what has been called marine debris but we'd like to call it plastic, oceanic pollution. They travel to all the gyres across the world and take samples to come back with and to educate folks about what was actually within the gyres.

What Leslie's team has found out in every single gyre they've visited is a plastic soup very similar to what you see in the video.

How is this collection of debris in the gyres affecting sea life, marine life, even the human species?




So people know for sure that fish are ingesting the plastic debris. We know sea birds are ingesting the plastic debris, and all manner of sea life are interacting with it, a lot of times, very negatively. What we don't know and what 5 Gyres is trying to draw the connection between is if humans are affected by this. The assumption is yes.

Because if a small fish winds up ingesting plastic, which we all know it does, and then a larger fish ingests a smaller fish—and you know it does—and then a human winds up eating the smaller fish, which we all know we do... the assumption is that these would all be ending up on our dinner plate.

So what are some helpful tips to reduce this pollution?

What 5 Gyres advocate for is reducing the use of disposable plastic in the first place. A lot of it winds up in the ocean—started out its life as a disposable single plastic which just isn't necessary. There's just no need to use single use water bottles, cutlery, plastic bags. There's a lot of reusable alternatives that will prevent this from getting into our oceans. So reduce, reuse and recycle!

Category:

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• Melissa
• McGinnis
• vlog
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• currents
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[StowAlex]

~ NICE VIDEO ~

Filter your own drinking water & STOP buying bottled water = less plastic waste and saves you money in the long run. Buy a reuseable container to keep in the refrigerator to take 'on the go'.

Plastic cutlery/utensils can be ok if you buy a heavy duty washable brand that you can reuse - for childrens use, parties, picnic ..etc.

If you do buy single use plastic or packaging, RECYCLE it.

It only take a lil bit of extra effort to recycle.

[GreenopolisTV]

@StowAlex Excellent points - thanks so much for sharing!

[boob1019]

Go to your local grocer and see if beverages are stored in glass anymore.Jelly jars, maybe . Oils , dressings and salsas, maybe . Why because of less breakage . Or saving Money.You girls got me thinking. Thx Bob

[GreenopolisTV]

@boob1019 Very true - hope we can get more people thinking and talking about these issues too!

[boob1019]

Leslie hit the nail on the head. When she said "water bottle". It serves no purpose. Tap water is filtered and put in a bottle. Get it from the tap in the first place. I have a ppm tester. To see how dirty my tap water is . Then after I filter it . Bottled water is just tap water. The same number . PPM is parts per million.

[GreenopolisTV]

@boob1019 You're so right Bob! In North America we have some of the best drinking water in the world right in our taps, and especially if you filter that you're golden!

[metalkillsbunnys]

@EveryNameIsUsedDamnF quit watching porn, these women are gorgeous and have good points to make. I hope you never have kids cuz its people like you that keep this world from advancing.

[ColoradoGarrett]

really dumb blond talking to know-it-all college hipster. Aside from that we humans fucked this planet uuuuuuuup

[EveryNameIsUsedDamnF]

Boring....too much clothes. They are not that good looking to waste the time watching

[MrZeroCide]

Stupid ass blonde. I wonder what percentage of plastic she is, along with that spray on tan

[joojooflop122]

That blond has an annoying voice

[MonopolyBag]

@KingRA23 Haha... yup

[MonopolyBag]

Fuck recycling, don't use it in the first place. You see all those people walking out the the market with plastic bags, use the reusable kinds. I hate when I see someone bag one item in a plastic bag. Like seriously? You can't carry that one item to your car without the use of a plastic, non biodegradable disposable bag? And people don't even think twice about it.

[0onal]

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