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Tag: Baltimore

Unprecedented destruction in the deep Gulf of Mexico, The Ocean Cleanup’s River Pivot, and More! Weekly Salvage: October 28, 2019.

Posted on October 28, 2019October 28, 2019 By Andrew Thaler
Weekly Salvage

Transcript below.

Read More “Unprecedented destruction in the deep Gulf of Mexico, The Ocean Cleanup’s River Pivot, and More! Weekly Salvage: October 28, 2019.” »

Ocean Kickstarter of the Month: Let’s build another trash eating water wheel in Canton!

Posted on December 8, 2015December 8, 2015 By Andrew Thaler
Uncategorized

Help the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore Build a new Water Wheel powered trash interceptor in Baltimore’s Canton neighborhood.

Help Fund the Canton Water Wheel.

I love the Baltimore Trashwheel. Let’s build another one.

healthyharbor_waterwheelsign1

In all seriousness, if you haven’t heard about the Baltimore Water Wheel, see my first article, or my 1-year recap at Hakai, or my most recent SFS post, or visit Mr. TrashWheel on Twitter. Of all the tech in all the world proposed to clean trash out of our oceans, these water wheels are the only large scale projects that have best tested and vetted against some serious garbage.

Read More “Ocean Kickstarter of the Month: Let’s build another trash eating water wheel in Canton!” »

Why I keep returning to the Baltimore Water Wheel

Posted on December 5, 2015December 5, 2015 By Andrew Thaler 1 Comment on Why I keep returning to the Baltimore Water Wheel
Conservation

Last month, I returned to Baltimore for the National Ocean Exploration Forum. While there, I paid a visit to my old friend, Mr. Trashwheel.

The Inner Harbor Water Wheel is in its second year of operation, cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay to the tune of up to 50,000 pounds of trash per day. I have written about this cool piece of engineering and ingenuity several times.

Charm in the fall.
Charm in the fall.

So why do I keep writing and revisiting this project?

It’s working.

Read More “Why I keep returning to the Baltimore Water Wheel” »

Charm City’s Water Wheel: The first truly feasible ocean cleaning array is already afloat

Posted on July 14, 2014July 14, 2014 By Andrew Thaler 3 Comments on Charm City’s Water Wheel: The first truly feasible ocean cleaning array is already afloat
Conservation

The Future is Here. Photo by Andrew Thaler.
The Future is here. Photo by Andrew Thaler.

Ocean plastic is bad news. Last week we were learned that not only did every ocean have its own, personal garbage gyre, but that a huge amount of plastic is “missing” from the ocean–that is, it has been incorporated into the ecosystem in ways we don’t yet understand. While there is plenty of misinformation floating around out there about what exactly these garbage patches are (hint: they aren’t solid islands of trash), there is no doubt that they are effecting the global ocean ecosystem in both profound and subtle ways.

Friend of Southern Fried Science and Deep Sea News writer Miriam Goldstein spent her PhD working on the North Pacific Gyre. Her research has revealed invasive pathogenic ciliates living on plastic trash and plastic-eating barnacles floating in the gyre. She also points out one of the biggest problems with trying to clean up these massive, dispersed “garbage patches”:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFSv2eW7g6E

You would almost have to clear-cut the top of the ocean in order to clean up all those little bits of plastic.

source

There is a sea of theoretical solutions, from dragging nets across the ocean to mooring massive floating arrays, in various states of completeness. Some have been no more than public relation stunts, while others push on despite extensive criticism from oceanographers and other marine experts. Some have promise, other appear to be no more than press releases.

Amid the TED talks, press-pushes, empty promises, and gratuitous publicity stunts, the City of Baltimore quietly built, tested, re-designed, re-built, and deployed a solar-powered, trash-eating, waterwheel-driven garbage scow that’s plying the urban waters of the Chesapeake Bay, pulling tons of trash out of the Inner Harbor every day. Say hello to the Inner Harbor Water Wheel. 

Read More “Charm City’s Water Wheel: The first truly feasible ocean cleaning array is already afloat” »

365 days of Darwin: The first 3 months

Posted on February 23, 2010 By Andrew Thaler 2 Comments on 365 days of Darwin: The first 3 months
Uncategorized

Charlie has had quite and adventure these first few months. His journey began November 24, 2009 – the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin – by congratulating Kevin Zelnio on his outstanding Great Darwin Beard Challenge win:

Charlie and Me – 365 days of Darwin

Read More “365 days of Darwin: The first 3 months” »

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