North Pacific Gyre

If you don't know about this, you need to. The North Pacific Gyre is an enormous vortex of plastic debris roughly twice the size of the United States. Check out this article.
I do my little part to keep the debris I find from reaching the ocean, but I was horrified when I saw this. There's no way my little kayak can have an impact of this, but I think people need to seriously think about the use of plastics in our society.
Sure, plastics help with sanitary things like medicine and food, but everything from the petroleum used to the energy needed to process it, to the disposal of it is a serious ecological disaster. Think about this: A glass bottle can be recycled, melted down and made into another glass bottle, the same goes for metals. Plastic however, cannot. A plastic bottle gets re-manufactured into something like a fleece jacket or sleeping bag stuffing. And from there it certainly won't get recycled.

Here's a couple of sobering facts:
- Plastic debris kills more than 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals every year
- Plastic pellets soak up chemicals and DDT they are then ingested by fish and eaten by us
- It is estimated that each square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of plastic
- Degraded plastic particles resemble zooplankton and are consumed by marine life
- Plastic particles outnumber zooplankton by a factor of 6 in this area
Additional Information: from Wiser Earth

Nashua River at the Oxbow

Last Sunday I went back to one of my favorite spots - the Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge. When I got there I saw a man, woman and a boy of about 13 or so pulling something up the boat ramp. It was a large rubber raft - like those you'd pull behind a boat for recreation. I had seen this thing in the river just past the firing range, but I couldn't budge it from my kayak.

They were in a canoe and a kayak and between them had managed to wrestle it free and remove it. Thanks to those folks! I very seldom see any involvement like that, but it was great to see. So I went out and made a couple of trips to clean up some of the logjams down near Rt. 2, and the whole day I felt happy knowing others shared my passion.