January 20, 2010
Miriam Goldstein Talks Trash
Over the weekend I attended ScienceOnline2010, a raucous gathering (if conferences can be raucous) of scientists and journalists. I met some great folks, including Miriam Goldstein — one of my favorite ocean bloggers — of Oyster’s Garter fame. (She also recently joined the salty bloggers over at Deep Sea News.)
Miriam was the chief scientist for last summer’s Scripps SEAPLEX expedition to the Pacific garbage patch. As if being chief scientist weren’t enough, she also blogged and tweeted the journey. And as she hilariously illustrates in this story from one of the first days of the expedition in the California Current, sometimes science doesn’t like to be live. (Apologies in advance for my, um, budding video skills.)
The SEAPLEX expedition received a ton of press attention. So after the session, I asked her, “Has the media overblown the pacific garbage patch?” She said, “Well, yes, in a way. There is no ‘island’ of trash — the ocean is homogeneous. But it is also way, way worse than we thought.”
Look out for the results of the SEAPLEX expedition later on in 2010.
Miriam Goldstein Talks Trash from Oceana on Vimeo.