On marine debris, and the difficulty in finding debris related to AF447 - to gauge the task facing those trying to find the aircraft, the following link may be of interest:
Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The location of the 0214 message, as compared to the closest "island" - the rocks of St Peter & St Paul, 322km away -
from: 3 34 40N 30 33 28W to: St Peter and St Paul Rocks - Google Maps
A slightly higher-quality screen-grab (click):
Curious to hear from an Airbus
engineer (ie without speculation) what they all mean.
(I have to say that this thread is refreshing, having actually read the previous one from the Quest school of journalism.)