Trash Vortex

Trash Vortex book cover — how plastic pollution is choking the world's oceans trash Vortex by Danielle Smith-Llera

Trash Vortex — page 1 — Chapter One A SURPRISE AT SEA Captain Charles Moore felt the wind across the north Pacific Ocean die to a whisper A few weeks earlier it had filled the sails of the Alguita pushing the white 50-foot-long 15-meter long sailboat west from California to Hawaii in the 1997 TransPacific Yacht Race He carried a trophy for third place and was enjoying brisk winds pushing him and his crew back home to California until now Moore had scanned weather reports and turned the Alguita’s bow southeast It had entered an expanse of ocean that was as still as a painting Sailors usually try to avoid the north Pacific Ocean The weather there is not too stormy or unpredictable but too calm Legends tell of desperate sailors waiting so long for wind that they had to conserve drinking water by drowning their cargo of livestock Sailors and scientists now understand that this quiet expanse of ocean is the center of a gyre pronounced JI-er a whirlpool that is thousands of miles wide Powerful currents flow around the outer edges like rivers through the ocean Driven by the wind and Earth’s rotation the currents sweep

Trash Vortex — page 2 — west across the Pacific Ocean and up the coast of Asia Then they move east across the ocean down the west coast of North America and west to begin the cycle again Captain Charles Moore and his research sailboat the Alguita The water encircled by the currents turns clockwise sluggishly Moore’s modern sailboat was equipped with diesel engines a system to make seawater drinkable and a radio to call for help Even so a detour across these calm waters would haunt him It would convince him that the ocean held a danger

1

PAGE 1 OF 76

The only kids' eBook subscription service that offers thousands of high-quality books from well known publishers like HarperCollins, National Geographic and others.

JavaScript Required

Whoops! We're sorry but Epic doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Check your web browser's settings to make sure it's enabled.