Horse Latitudes

By | 1 February 2013

The gyre. The currents sweeping up
plastic artefacts. The currents the gyre
the artefacts. The Sun breaking plastic
down into particles. The polymers.
The molecules. The container load
of polythene horses thrown overboard.
The gyre. The floating debris slow
spinning into a new continent. The Sun.
The currents. The suspended polymer
particles mistaken for zooplankton.
The jellyfish. The albatross. The horses’
polythene panniers brimming with
toxic chaff. The plankton. The food
chain. The monofilament polymer
fishing line. The albatross.
The artefacts. The Sun breaking plastic
down into particles. The currents.
The floating debris. The toxic chaff.
The food chain. The quiet stampede
of miniscule Trojan horses slow
swimming nose to tail around the globe.

The Horse Latitudes is a region of the Pacific where, when becalmed, Spanish sailors threw cargoes of horses overboard to conserve fresh water. This region now contains a continent-sized gyre of marine litter with exceptionally high concentrations of pelagic plastics and chemical sludge.

 


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