Page 11 - Ocean Bottom News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Disrupt the search on the surface. again, if you look at computer models, there aren't that many places in the world's oceans where you actually concentrate marine debris. there could be one here. most of the time it spreads out over time and drifts with currents. honestly, i haven't heard that. could be. unfortunately, our oceans are full of trash, particularly plastics. and, you know, you never want to see that. >> because you know that they dump a lot of garbage in the indian ocean. ships going back and forth. what do you know about this so-called garbage patch? >> well, as ellen said, ther...

>> a lot of time when you use auvs you find a lot of garbage on the ocean bottom, things tossed overboards, barrels, cars, it's amazing -- >> cars? >> yes. each one of these things requires you to put the camera on it. >> sure. >> to make sure it's not what you're looking for. they're so far out in an area that's not trafficked that much in the indian ocean, that i don't expect there to be a lot of these sort of false positives on the ocean bottom. while there's a garbage patch, if they start picking up man-made objects it's most likely this. >> so far away from where mankind destroys the eart...

Might end up on the australian coast. i'm sure they're talking to those people. >> van, is the bluefin-21 the best piece of equipment now to find one of these, a flight data recorder or any wreckage that may be on the floor of the indian ocean? >> well, wolf, i'm not exactly familiar with the bluefin-21, i never operated with it while in the navy. we operated with similar equipment. i don't want to say that isn't the right piece. i can say it's the right technology. a reliable vehicle that has operated many times before. maybe not in these depths. with the right types of sensors. the side scan...

Heard, there's issues with that. there's availability. there's the team to launch it. i would hope that, you know, one of the things you always want to do with equipment in the ocean is have a backup because things go wrong. so i would suspect they're right now looking for other assets that might be deployable if they need them. >> well, what about that, van, because when you were in the navy, there were other assets you used to use. what else is out there? >> well, there are a number of other vehicles and other technologies, so in terms of auvs like we've been looking at with the bluefin, the...

It a few more days in case something should happen and then begin the process of switching out from this towed pinger locater to the sonar mapping to begin the laborious process of mapping this area. logically they begin where they got the great two and a half hour pinging event because that's the strongest card they have in the deck. and they'll probably begin the search out from there and then the question becomes, how long do you keep this aerial search up? that's an open question. >> all right. captain gurley, last word on what you see happening potentially this week. >> completely agree w...