I have been in love with the ocean and surfing ever since i can remember, and i am astonished and embarrassed to say that i have just learned about one of the most disturbing man-made “F” ups caused by ignorance, stupidity and laziness. All the plastic that you and i see along the street driving to work, the bags that dance and float by on the freeway, the bottles you pass by at your favorite break, all end up in one spot… and have been doing so since the 1950s. The plastic finds its way to the ocean. This waste accumulates in swirling seas of debris, where plastic to sea life ratios are 6:1; where birds and mammals are dying of starvation and dehydration, with bellies full of plastic. Fish are ingesting toxins at such a rate that soon they will no longer be safe to eat.
(One bird’s stomach was found containing 1603 pieces of plastic)
The ocean swells and currents create natural toilet bowls, which gather our waste, majority of it being comprised of plastics that does not biodegrade. The largest of these garbage swills is known as the Pacific Gyre, or The Great Garbage Patch.
It is roughly the twice the size of Texas, containing approximately 3.5 million tons of trash. Shoes, toys, bags, pacifers, wrappers, toothbrushes, and bottles too numerous to count are only part of what can be found in this accidental dump floating midway between Hawaii and San Francisco.
Amazingly, there is no effort underway to clean the mess. Over the past few days i have not been able to stop thinking about it and am surprised with the amount of friends and peers that don’t know about it. I haven’t come up with a solution for this problem… yet… but i can say, throw your trash away, recycle your plastic, and please spread the word!
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Quad Marley #1
John Baldaray, Brasil 2008
the O style 
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