GYRES

Located in the main gallery

A "gyre" is a swirling vortex. The surface circulation of our oceans is dominated by gyres that range from hundreds to thousands of miles in diameter.

Gyres are created by huge "mountains" of air that have been heated at the equator and then begin descending in a gentle rotation as they approach the poles. The circular winds produce ocean currents, which spiral to create a slight down-welling. Scientists know this atmospheric phenomenon as subtropical highs, and the ocean current it creates as subtropical gyres. Worldwide, there are five major oceanic gyres.

Worldwide, there are five major oceanic gyres: the North and South Pacific Gyres, the North and South Atlantic Gyres, and the Indian Ocean Gyre. There are innumerable smaller gyres apart from these five major gyres.

Gyres, resin on aluminum by Graham Pelllitier

"Plastic Paradise: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Trailer."

Virgil Films and Entertainment. YouTube, 29 July 2014

You're being experimented on.

Do you care?

1:54min

"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Awareness Video."

tav nav. YouTube, 29 April 2012.

High production value.

Features Capt. C. Moore.

3:51min

"Plastic Pollution Coalition - OPEN YOUR EYES - Overview Narrated by Jeff Bridges (2016)."

PlasticPollution. YouTube, 28 Mar 2016.

Great overview.

Features actor Jeff Bridges.

3:55min

"Ocean Confetti!."

MinuteEarth. YouTube, 10 May 2004.

An animation - quick and clear.

2:56min

Ocean Gyres Mural by Bryan Stacey

Samples provided by Bonnie Monteleone.

Where in the World is Captain Moore?

In the summer of 1997, Captain Charles Moore, world class sailor, set sail from Hawaii, bound for his California home port. When he took a shortcut through the seldom-traversed North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, he realized his ship was skimming its way through a plastic soup. He had stumbled upon the largest garbage dump on the planet.

Appalled by the phenomenon, Captain Moore determined to do something about it. ALthough the debris-infested gyre was already known to scientists, it was Captain Moore who brought the Great Garbage Patch to the world's attention. Moore founded the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and has since conducted years of data collection and analysis. He has gained international recognition as a pollution expert and activist and has been featured in innumerable media forums.

Plastic Ocean

Plastic Ocean raises profound questions about the impact and implications of the man-made blight of marine debris. As the oceans teeter on the brink of irrevocable decline, Plastic Ocean calls for a fundamental rethinking of what we now know to be our Plastic Age.

winner of the 2012 Nautilus Gold Award for Conscious Media/Journalism/Investigative Reporting

Captain Charles Moore and "The Alguita" 50-foot, aluminum-hulled catmaran

What is the Great Garbage Patch?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a debris-infested area of the ocean located within the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. It lies roughly between Hawaii and the West Coast at 135°W to 155°W and 35°N and 42°N. Because it is on the eastern side of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, this area is also known as the Eastern Garbage Patch.

Contaminated by an estimated 6 million tons of debris, this area is approximately twice as large as the state of Texas. The estimated size varies widely depending on the degree of plastic concentration used to define the affected area.

Ocean Gyres

Acrylic on plywood, 9ft 5in x 18ft 9in

This 7-panel world map depicts the location of the five major ocean gyres of the earth. The mural was partitioned so that each panel is freestanding yet each contains elements of both land and gyre.

Bryan paints with a hybrid style of his own graffiti lettering (West-Coast wild style, cholo handstyle, East-Coast rap letters) combined with bio-mechanical art. This style has recently become known as "grafstract." Bryan received a BFA from Gullford College in 2009 with a concentration in drawing, sculpture, and printmaking. in 2012, he opened his tattoo parlor/gallery Anvil & Ink on Castle Street, WIlmington, NC. He travels throughout the year and his mural work can be seen up and down the East Coast–from Brooklyn to Miami.

Songs from the Gyres, by Rebekah Todd

Gyres, by Rebekah Todd

Songs from the Gyre

Acrylic on plastic, 2ft x 2ft

Rebekah is a folk/blues artist from the small town of Benson, NC–singing since she she learned to walk. She currently works both solo and on guitar as well as with other musicians including her own full six-piece band, Rebekah Todd & the Odyssey.

In her interpretation of ocean gyres, Rebekah has translated her talent for song into the deep and stirring movement of the ocean. Each piece evokes an emotional reaction. A base of swirled plastic bags, upon which acrylic paint is layered, emulates the ocean's movement and depth.

Real Samples from Ocean Gyres

These are real samples from ocean gyres collected by researcher Bonnie Monteleone. Each sample was collected by a surface skimming Manta trawl (an aluminum frame resembling a manta ray in shape). The trawl was one meter long and a half meter deep with an attached 333 micron net. A flow meter was suspended in the mouth of the trawl to measure the total distance-to-volume sampled. Researchers pulled this trawl behind a boat for one hour at a time, sampling the top 15 centimeters of seawater.

1 • Algalita Marine Research Foundation

• 52foot catamaran: RV Alguita

• 3,460 nautical miles, 31 days

North Pacific Gyre (2009)

2 • Plastic Oceans Foundation

• 140 foot sailboat: Tui Tai

• 410 nautical miles, 7 days

South Pacific Gyre (2012)

3 • Ocean Flux Program funded by National Science Foundation and UNCW travel grant

• 171 foot survery vessel: RV Atlantic Explorer

• 300 nautical miles, 5 days

North Atlantic Gyre (2013)

4 • UNCW travel grand and private donations

• 72 foot sailboat: RV Sea Dragon

• 4,200 nautical miles, 32 days

South Atlantic Gyre (2013)

Gyres

Graham Pelletier grew up in eastern North Carolina, in an artistic family. Although he first experimented with ink art as a child, he didn't pursue art until two years ago when inspiration and creativity returned with a vengeance.

Graham's collection of marine life and gyres explores resin on aluminum. He uses a grinder to imprint the aluminum, which allows a unique refracting of light. The pieces are hammered from the back (metal chasing) for the 3-D relief effect. They are mounted on luan painted with lightfast acrylic ink. Each piece in this exhibit is embedded with plastic, whether netting, straws, bags, or debris. All of his pieces are capped with two layers of resin to protect the inks.