"Recycled Island" turns ocean plastic into a paradise

From Stephen Messenger (Treehugger)

Ever dreamed of living on a giant island of plastic?

Well, with all the plastic that floats around in the ocean as a toxic soup threatening all manner of marine life, one architecture firm has a bold vision to create an eco-paradise called "Recycled Island" in the Pacific Ocean with sustainability at its core.
It's a bold plan, but not only would the project help clean the oceans, the firm claims, it might just be a perfect home for climate refugees--and a way to turn those toxic patches of ocean plastic into an island that may do the planet some good.

The idea for the massive Recycled Island was developed by WHIM architecture as a way to clean the oceans and create a new floating habitat dedicated to sustainable living, complete with beaches, farms, and buildings.
Ideally placed in the Pacific, between San Francisco and Hawaii, the island would be some 4 thousand square miles of plastic 'land' upon which plastic communities would be built.

According the project's plan, the plastics used to build the island will come from the giant North Pacific Gyre. Once collected and cleaned, the material could then be reformed into floating platforms of recycled plastic.
"This will clean our Oceans intensely and it will change the character of the plastic waste from garbage to building material," says WHIM. "The gathering of the plastic waste will become a lot more attractive."

With the land mass built, the firm believes a sustainable island paradise will flourish, according to the project's Web site:

• The habitable area is designed as an urban setting. Nowadays already half of the World population lives in urban conditions, which has a huge impact on nature. The realization of mixed-use environments is our hope for the future.
• The island is constructed as a green living environment, from the point of view of a natural habitat. The use of compost toilets in creating fertile ground is an example in this.
• It is a self sufficient habitat, which is not (or hardly) depending from other countries and finds its own resources to survive. The settlement has its own energy and food sources.
• The island is ecologic and not polluting or affecting the world negatively. Natural and non polluting sources are used to let the island exist in harmony with nature.

An important component in making Recycled Island sustainable comes from the cultivation of seaweed, which would provide food, fuel, and medicine, as well absorb CO2 and offer a habitat to fish.

While the plan to build an island by recycling the plastic that pollutes our oceans is certainly a bold one, if not downright impossible, it is in line with a number of ambitious recycling projects that have indeed come to fruition.
Certainly, the planet has no pressing need for a new island, sustainable or otherwise, but it would be a huge improvement on the toxic masses of ocean plastic inadvertently in place already. And who knows, maybe Radiohead could write a song about it.

Links :

• PlanetGreen Discovery : The Pacific Garbage patch explained
• Massive plastic bottle building unveiled in Taiwan
• Rome's trashiest Hotel built with 12 tons of litter
• Plastiki ship makes its way across the Pacific
• Electrolux : turn ocean garbage into vacuums?
• CNN : Islands are 'natural nets' for plastic-choked seas
• Seaplex expedition blog
  

Crocodiles ride ocean currents to travel long distances

From LiveScience

How did the world's largest living reptile, the saltwater crocodile, reach so many South Pacific islands separated by huge stretches of water despite being a poor swimmer?

Apparently, like a surfer catching a wave, these goliaths can ride currents on the ocean surface to cross large areas of open sea, researchers now reveal.

The saltwater or estuarine crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is a ferocious giant that can grow at least 23 feet long (7 meters) and weigh more than 2,200 pounds (1000 kilograms).
These scaly monsters have been known to devour sharks, and even attack things they can't eat, often assaulting boats in the mistaken belief they are rivals or prey, biting down with nearly 2 tons of pressure - powerful enough to crush bone or punch through aluminum hulls.

These deadly predators hunt in tropical areas throughout eastern India, southeast Asia, northern Australia, and on an untold number of the islands in-between.
Although these crocodiles spend most of their lives in saltwater, they cannot be considered marine reptiles the same way sea turtles are, because the crocs rely on land for food and water.

There were already many anecdotal accounts of large crocodiles sighted far out at sea, but nothing confirmed.
Now, for the first time, using sonar transmitters and satellite tracking, scientists now find that saltwater crocodiles actually do ride surface ocean currents for long-distance travel, enabling them to voyage from one oceanic island to another.

"Because these crocodiles are poor swimmers, it is unlikely that they swim across vast tracts of ocean," said researcher Hamish Campbell, a behavioral ecologist from University of Queensland in Australia.
"But they can survive for long periods in saltwater without eating or drinking, so by only traveling when surface currents are favorable, they would be able to move long distances by sea."

Crocodile river travel
Working at the remote Kennedy River in northeastern Australia, the team of scientists - which included the late Steve Irwin, "The Crocodile Hunter" - tagged 27 adult seawater crocodiles with sonar transmitters, employing 20 underwater receivers deployed along a 39-mile-long stretch of the river (63 km) to track the reptiles' every move for more than 12 months.
They found both male and female adult crocodiles undertook long-distance journeys, regularly traveling more than 30 miles (48 km) from their home area to the river mouth and beyond into open sea.
The scientists also discovered the "salties" always began long-distance travel within an hour of the tide changing, allowing them to go with the flow.
They halted their journeys by hauling out onto the river bank or diving to the river bottom when the currents turned against them.
The researchers originally were just aiming to investigate the territorial habits of the crocodiles and how they divvied up land among themselves.
"I never thought they would be making these long-distance journeys out to sea," Campbell told LiveScience.

Riding ocean currents
After they made their discovery on the river, Campbell and his colleagues re-analyzed archival data from the few crocodiles that have been satellite tracked while undertaking ocean travel.
By overlaying the reptiles' movements with surface current estimates, they found the strategy of ocean-swimming crocodiles was similar to what they employed with rivers.

One satellite-tagged crocodile, 12.6-foot-long male (3.8 meters) - left the Kennedy River and travelled 366 miles (590 km) over 25 days, timing its journey to coincide with a seasonal current system that develops in the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Another croc - a 15.8-foot-long male (4.8 meters) - traveled more than 255 miles (411 km) in only 20 days through the Torres Straits, which are notorious for strong water currents.
When the reptile arrived at the straits, the currents were moving opposite to his direction of travel - he then waited in a sheltered bay for four days and only passed through the straits when the currents switched to favor his journey.

These findings could explain why this crocodile species did not split into many other species despite occupying islands across such a large range, where in principle populations could have been isolated and diverged from their relatives over time.

"Regular mixing between the island populations probably occurs," Campbell said. "Crocodilians have crossed major marine barriers during their evolutionary past."

Although scientists now know that salties seem to make long-distance journeys on purpose, "we presently do not know what these are for," Campbell noted.
However, it was recently discovered that considerable numbers of the reptiles congregated to feast on an annual fish migration, so these long trips might be a way for the predators to satisfy their hefty appetites.

The scientists will detail their findings June 8 in the Journal of Animal Ecology.

Links :

• TheRegister : Steve Irwin surveillance-crocodiles travel across oceans
  

Tuna fishing in South Pacific

The South Pacific is still relatively healthy and teeming with fish, but it is a fragile paradise.

International fishing fleets are taking a serious toll on the sharks, albatross and tuna, and there are other insidious threats to these bountiful seas.

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Feature : trying to zoom the user gets a layering affect between the area he is trying to zoom to, the page just doesn't want to refresh so not rendering the charts properly.

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Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Arctic 'unicorns'

In a unique aerial sequence, the migration of narwhal with their distinctive unicorn-like tusks is filmed for the first time.

The whales' journey is risky as they travel along giant cracks in the ice.
If the ice were to close above them, they would drown.