Web Extra: Scenes from the Pacific Garbage Patch

Recommended QUEST Resources

• Quest Science Blog: Interview with Lindsey Hoshaw

  Reporter Lindsey Hoshaw recently returned from a trip to the Pacific Garbage Patch. She was the only journalist on a recent scientific expedition led by Charles Moore, who discovered the patch 12 years ago. QUEST reporter Amy Standen talked to Lindsey about her trip to the patch and what she found there.

• Sea of Plastic

  When you order your double latte to-go at the corner coffee shop, the empty cup and lid may end up in a giant pit of plastic ocean litter off the coast of California. Some cities and counties are so concerned about the garbage in the so-called North Pacific Gyre that they've passed ordinances to try to limit the amount of plastic in our lives.

• Paper or Plastic?

  Last November, San Francisco became the first city in the country to outlaw plastic check out bags at large supermarkets, arguing that the bags are dangerous to marine life and hard to recycle. But some studies say paper bags can be just as harmful for the environment. So why target plastic?

Additional Links

• Algalita Marine Research Foundation

• Ocean Adventures Video: Trash on the Spin Cycle

  See the miles of trash in Great Pacific Garbage Patch as Jean-Michel Cousteau and his team run into it near the Hawaiian Islands.