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Oceanographic scientists say they have discovered a vast, floating
"reef" of the world's disposed condoms in the middle of the South
Pacific, about halfway between Tahiti and Antarctica. The phenomenal mass is
almost two miles long, an eighth of a mile wide, and in places up to 60 feet
deep, the oceanographers say.
Mason Froule, Australian marine biologist at his country's Oceanographic
Laboratory Outpost on Macquarie Island, South Pacific, said the bizarre
accumulation is explained by a scientific term called "like
aggregation"-- that is, the massing of similar objects over short or longer
periods of time due to wind or ocean currents, magnetic fields, buoyancy and
other conditions.
"It's fairly common in the world's oceans," he said: natural events
such as red tides, for example, are instances of "like aggregation."
"People with pets that shed lots of hair can see it in their own
homes," Froule added. "The dog sheds everywhere in the room, but after
falling out, the fur soon collects in a few clumps and masses."
Froule said ocean "reefs" of styrofoam and detergent residues have
been observed in the South Pacific and elsewhere for many years, but they are
usually broken up by storms before they become large or hazardous. He believes
the huge concentration of condoms, not reported before, is more resilient than
other "aggregating" ocean materials, and may have been developing for
decades. Froule said parts of the newly discovered reef are matted together so
densely that "you could almost land a plane on it." "I suppose it
would be funny if it didn't pose the hazard it does to marine life and
navigation," Froule stated. "I pity any freighter, submarine, or
dolphin, for that matter, that might run into it."
The biologist said he and his Australian scientific colleagues will have the
reef mapped by satellite and monitored from now on to see if it expands, breaks
up, or drifts from its current location (reported at 63 degrees latitude and 154
degrees longitude). Froule said there would not be much point in trying to break
up the pulpy mass with explosives or other devices. "It seems pretty
indestructible," he said.
The world's industrialised nations are estimated to consume and dispose of
nearly 300 million condoms a year. Industry analysts say about a third of the
discards become waterborne.