How Much Debris is in Our Oceans?

June 2, 2009

Article from CNN: Ships head for area airplane debris spotted

My heart goes out to the families and friends of the people who are likely lost in an Air France plane crash which occured off the coast of Brazil. It is always disheartening to hear about such tragedies. However, there is a story within a story here. What was said illuminates a bigger problem, the state of our oceans and our environment at large.

During the search for survivors it appears searchers had spotted something, potentially related to “airplane debris”: quoted from the article, “Earlier Tuesday, searchers found an airplane seat, an orange life vest, small white fragments, an oil drum and signs of oil and kerosene about 700 kilometers (435 miles) northeast of the Fernando de Noronha archipelago, said Brazilian Air Force spokesman Jorge Amaral.”

Ocean Trash

Mr. Amaral goes onto to explain…

“There was not enough material to officially say it is wreckage from Flight 447, Amaral said.”

My question is two-fold; 1) Was there another plane crash we are unaware of that happened in the same vicinty? 2) If this debris is not enough to claim it is from flight 447, then does it not imply this could be a “normal” amount of ocean debris?

I think we have all heard about the growing amount of ocean trash across the planet. But to Mr. Amaral’s defense, I doubt he was implying this is being confused with what trash is already in the ocean. However, the implication is there is alot of ocean debris or trash and we are poisoning our planet, our oceans at an unprecedented rate.

It is about time we stop crashing planes into the ocean so there is no confusion over airplane debris and our garbage.