Marine debris

When floating or floating debris ( regional: Flotsam, floating debris or Teek ) items are designated drifting in the sea or inland waters on the water surface. These include natural materials (branches, aquatic plants), waste ( waste plastics, metal cans, glass bottles), wreckage and lost cargo from ships. Flotsam on the open sea is also known as Seetrift ( seetriftiges Good).

Dangers and economic damage

Larger Treibgutteile can for smaller vessels pose a navigation obstacle and danger and damage the equipment of fishing vessels.

To water management facilities ( for example, hydropower plants ) flotsam can cause considerable damage. The operator of such plants protect themselves from floating debris by installing before running a so-called " flotsam " on which hang the flotsam remains and can be removed regularly.

In high water, floating debris often collects at bridges, which is also known as Verklausung. The result is an increased pressure on the structure. The load can be so great that the bridge is destroyed, even though they had a similar water level and also a similar flow without exposure to floating debris survived undamaged. The distance from angestautem flotsam is therefore an important measure to maintain a bridge.

History

Previously presented flotsam and jetsam of sunken ships ( wreckage ) an additional source of income for residents of Country strokes that near which often ships were lost or stranded. This was driven in part by, for example beacons were manipulated.

Research

A separate branch of research in oceanography has been working for several years with the observation of Treibgutwanderungen over longer distances on the high seas, to thereby obtain more precise information about the course and speed of ocean currents.

Triggers were thousands rubber ducks and other floating plastic animals in 1992 from a freighter in the eastern Pacific went overboard and since then float on the oceans.