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Buy Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion (Scientists in the Field) by Loree Griffin Burns available and for sale on Brightsurf
| View Larger Image | Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion (Scientists in the Field)
by Loree Griffin Burns
| | List Price: | $18.00 | | Price: | $12.24 | | You Save: | $5.76 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 1 to 3 weeks | | | | | Sales Rank: | 54491 | | Studio: | Houghton Mifflin | | | Binding: | Hardcover | | Reading Level: | Ages 9-12 | | Number Of Pages: | 64 | | Publication Date: | March 26, 2007 | | Publisher: | Houghton Mifflin |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Aided by an army of beachcombers, oceanographer Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer tracks trash in the name of science. From sneakers to hockey gloves, Curt monitors the watery fate of human-made cargo that has spilled into the ocean. The information he collects is much more than casual news; it is important scientific data. And with careful analysis, Curt, along with a community of scientists, friends, and beachcombers alike, is using his data to understand and protect our ocean.
In engaging text and unforgettable images, readers meet the woman who started it all (Curt's mother!), the computer program that makes sense of his data (nicknamed OSCURS), and several scientists, both on land and on the sea, who are using Curt's discoveries to preserve delicate marine habitats and protect the creatures who live in them. |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 10 reviews)
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Puts the scientific explanations into pictures - fascinating 
I live on the beach and have always wondered why there is so much garbage and why there seems to be more now than 10 years ago. This not only explains it all, but provides photographs and maps that make it all make sense. I know this is geared to a younger audience, but who has the patience to wade through volumes just to find out why our coastlines are so full of trash? Why we can't stay on top of it and why we continue to find dead sea life on the shores. What we are doing to our environment is horrible, but this book puts it into a quick read. I have a hotel and every guests manages to read this book. I would make it the equivalent of watching a documentary on the subject - a little entertaining and a lot of knowledge in a couple of hours. It's great coffee table conversation too.
June 24, 2008 | |
Richie's Picks: TRACKING TRASH
"Mr. Thompson calls the waiter, orders steak and baked potater
But he leaves the bone & gristle & he never eats the skins.
Then the bus boy comes & takes it, with a cough contaminates it
As he puts it in a can with coffee grounds & sardine tins.
Then the truck comes by on Friday & carts it all away
And a thousand trucks just like it are converging on the bay."
Perhaps the dumping of garbage into the bay is not quite as blatant today as it was back in 1969 when Bill Steele wrote his eco-ditty, "Garbage," but it seems that today's never-ending flow of plastic garbage into the oceans is of more dire and destructive consequence to the oceans' long-term survival than anything they've previously faced. This is one of the conclusions to be drawn from the fascinating and important TRACKING TRASH: FLOTSAM, JETSAM, AND THE SCIENCE OF OCEAN MOTION.
Who knew that beachcombers kept meticulous logs of their finds or that they actually held conventions? Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer who began his widely-publicized work with ocean currents and tracking trash when his mom asked him to figure out why hundreds of sneakers had begun washing up on beaches near Seattle, has uncovered significant clues through his ongoing communications with beachcombers. We learn in TRACKING TRASH that there are slight changes year to year in the oceans' currents and that projections of those current flows is now a well-refined science whose origins harken back to scientific work by Benjamin Franklin.
The first part of TRACKING TRASH is especially entertaining to read. Huge cargo containers periodically fall from enormous cargo ships in big storms. The cargo gets loose and takes off with the currents. Many readers will be amused by the thought of eighty thousand Nike sneakers drifting eastward in the currents, of twenty-nine thousand rubber duckies and froggies bobbing merrily along, or of five million LEGO pieces breaking loose in the middle of the Atlantic. But the incidents of lost cargo are a drop in the bucket; they're less than one-fifth of the problem. The remainder, the more serious story, is of large quantities of garbage -- so much of it plastic-based -- getting flushed out of rivers and bays into the sea.
Having fond memories of creating "whirlpools" with friends in little backyard swimming pools, it is not surprising to learn that when a stream of indestructible plastic garbage is continually dumped into the ocean, it will eventually come together in a big bobbing mass surrounded by circulating currents. What is impressive (or, more likely, alarming and depressing) is that a so-called Garbage Patch in the Pacific is now as big as the state of Alaska and estimated to be composed of the accumulation of six BILLION pounds of plastic this, plastic that, and plastic everything else.
"What happens to this plastic trash during the decades it floats around the Garbage Patch? Not much, because plastic is one of the most indestructible materials on the planet. This is one of the reasons we find it so useful. Plastic is found in everything, from the toys we play with to the plates we eat from, the cars we drive, and even the clothes we wear.
"Unfortunately, the very property that makes plastic a useful material for all these items makes it virtually impossible to get rid of. There is no organism anywhere on the planet that can digest plastic. A long exposure to sunshine, wind,, and waves will eventually break plastic objects into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, but those small pieces are still made entirely of indestructible, indigestible plastic.
And when birds and marine mammals get mixed up with all of this plastic they die.
"Bottle caps and disposable lighters are seen in the carcasses of sea birds found on beaches from Hawaii to Washington. Apparently the birds are mistaking floating plastic for food. Many of these birds die of starvation because the plastic filling their stomachs can be neither digested nor excreted. Discarded fishing nets and other fishing gear can tangle and drown fish, sea turtles, seals, and other animals. Experts now estimate that the number of marine mammals in the Pacific Ocean that die each year due to plastic ingestion and net entanglement approaches 100,000."
This particular passage in the well-illustrated book is accentuated with a photo of a dead, rotting bird complete with the fifty-nine plastic pieces that were stuck in its gut.
The immediate solution? Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. If plastic bags are so indestructible, then I shouldn't take one unless I'm going to reuse it numerous times and then recycle it. Long term, there is no question that big changes must be made in terms of manufacturing and consuming so much petroleum-based plastic stuff.
"There's nothing left to watch & there's nothing left to touch
There's nothing left to walk upon & nothing left to talk upon
And nothing left to see & nothing left to be but Garbage!"
As with other books I've read in the Scientists in the Field series, TRACKING TRASH reveals the profiled scientists to be pretty cool people with extremely interesting jobs. It'll definitely inspire interest by readers in science.
February 05, 2008 | |
Should be read by adults too 
While published for children, 'Tracking Trash' is definitely readable by all, and is especially poignant for anyone who thinks that trash/litter just eventually disappears. The discovery of a floating garbage dump in the ocean the size of Alaska attests to the contrary. A few years ago I had a sudden realization myself at how dependent we are on plastics. Look around you right now: What isn't made of plastic? It's astounding. Two facts that will stick with me: No organism on earth can digest plastic, and plastic doesn't naturally break down into anything - except smaller pieces of plastic.
January 05, 2008 | |
A little young. 
This book seems to be geared towards junior high kids and not adults. Large print big color photos. It goes into explaining what a container van is. I thought it would have more scientific data and less fluff. A good book for the younger crowd.
December 29, 2007 | |
Fascinating and Important
TRACKING TRASH by Loree Griffin Burns is a trip to a different world -- our oceans. The author won a well-earned Boston Globe - Horn Book Award for this work of non-fiction that's as transporting as any novel. My kids - 5 and 10 - were entranced as I read out loud about huge cargo spills of sneakers and bath toys, where the items washed up on beaches all over the world, and what it taught scientists about ocean currents. They were horrified -- and so was I -- by stories of "ghost nets" that are abandoned in the seas to become garbage magnets and death traps for wildlife. This is an important book that teaches stewardship without ever feeling preachy, and it's well-deserving of the honors it's receiving.
August 15, 2007 | |
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