Discovering The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Witness History

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 7 August 2017

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the summer of 1997 Captain Charles Moore was on his way home from a yacht race when he came upon a huge patch of floating rubbish in the Pacific Ocean. In 2013 he spoke to Lucy Burns about the discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and how it opened up a new chapter in research into ocean waste.

Photo: Fishing nets and assorted garbage collected from the North Pacific Gyre (Credit: Environmental Images/Univers/REX/Shutterstock)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC
0:35.4	Sounds.
0:36.4	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:40.9	My name's Linda Davies and I commissioned
0:43.0	podcast for BBC Sounds.
0:45.0	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality,
0:49.0	featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:54.4	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
1:00.9	poltergeist, cricket, and Conspiracy Theories.
1:04.3	And that's just a few examples.
1:06.2	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected,
1:09.4	find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. Hi, and thanks for downloading Witness, the History Podcast from the BBC World Service.
1:17.0	I'm Lucy Burns and today we're going back to 1997
1:21.0	when an American research boat on the way home from a yacht race discovered that plastic waste was collecting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
1:29.0	I've been hearing from the man who discovered what became known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
1:35.0	It's the summer of 1997 and Captain Charles J Moore is taking part in a yacht race to test a new mast on his research boat.
1:46.0	I entered a race in 1997, entered the Trans Pact from Los Angeles to Hawaii.
	...

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