Would You Pay $10k to Sail to a Floating Garbage Dump?

If you're going to spend $10,000 for a cruise, you'd probably want to go someplace scenic and not a giant patch of garbage, right?

Well, some people are actually shelling out that much cash for a 20-day cruise to a garbage dump smack dab in the middle of the ocean.

The cruise, which takes place July 7 to 27, goes from Honolulu to Vancouver, British Columbia, with the major destination being the North Pacific Gyre -- a vast area of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean that some studies suggest is twice the size of Texas.

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Doug Woodring, an entrepreneur and conservationist, displays rubbish on May 7, 2009, on a beach on the south side of Hong Kong. A group of tourists will have a similar chance to get up close and personal with ocean trash when they take a $10,000 cruise to the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" in July.

The gyre, known to environmentalists as "the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," is basically a circular current of water that turns everything dumped in the North Pacific -- plastic bottles, cigarette lighters, "Two and a Half Men" DVD collections -- into non-biodegradable confetti the size of fish food.

As a result, the most concentrated parts of the gyre are chock full of marine pollution, and, consequently, it's not the most attractive spot for a vacation.

And, strangely enough, that's why a nonprofit group is charging a whopping 10 grand for people who want to visit it.

The Algalita Marine Research Foundation in Long Beach, Calif., is offering 14 lucky people the chance to cruise from Honolulu to deep in the heart of the dump, which is located between 135 degrees to 155 degrees west to 42 degrees north.

You'd think for that price, that the passengers would be able to sip a few pina coladas while enjoying the balmy breezes and the pleasant sight of trash bobbling on the ocean surface.

Well, you'd be wrong.

Since this is being billed as a fundraising scientific expedition, the participants won't have a chance to rest by a pool, shop in duty-free stores or get love advice from Doc, Gopher or Capt. Stubing.

Instead, they'll operate a trawl that will collect micro-plastic bits as well as hauling aboard larger items found thousands of miles offshore.

Oh, and they'll also be helping to sail and maintain the ship, stand watch at night and even do some of the cooking.

There is a benefit: The participants will get to take some of the garbage, which Dr. Marcus Eriksen, the scientist leading the trip, says "resembles a thin soup of plastic in the thickest parts.

"There is no mythical island of garbage," Eriksen told AOL News. "Even when we trawl an area the size of a football field, we will collect about a handful of confetti."

That sounds small, but make no mistake, it's a big environmental problem.

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"The Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is one of five gyres in the world's oceans and is notorious for being the end spot for trash dumped in the northern Pacific Ocean.

"It's not an aesthetic issue, although, when you're in the middle of it, you see a thin confetti of plastic waste as far as the eye can see," Eriksen said. "But all types of marine animals, including fish, birds and mammals, ingest this stuff."

Even worse: PCBs and hydrocarbons stick to the plastic pellets, Eriksen said.

"Right now, we're studying to see if a fish eats plastic, does it reabsorb it," he continued. "It happens in the lab, but not yet in nature."

Algalita spokeswoman Jeanne Gallagher admits the trip isn't for people who'd rather suntan on the Lido deck.

"This is for people interested in the environment," she said. "Our hope is that this will help inspire people to stop using the ocean as the final resting place for trash."

Although $10,000 is a lot for most people to drop on any trip -- much less a trip to a giant garbage dump -- at least two people have ponied up the cash, including Karen Ristuben, a Massachusetts-based environmental artist who freely admits the purpose of the trip means more than a chance to be treated like royalty on a cruise ship.

"I have no desire to go on a trip and be waited on hand and foot," she said. "I am in the process of researching the ways in which consumerism and late capitalism have impacted the health of the ocean, including the issue of plastics.