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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water.

The area in the center of a gyre tends to be very calm and stable. The circular motion of the gyre draws debris into this stable center, where it becomes trapped. A plastic water bottle discarded off the coast of California, for instance, takes the California Current south toward Mexico. There, it may catch the North Equatorial Current, which crosses the vast Pacific. Near the coast of Japan, the bottle may travel north on the powerful Kuroshiro Current. Finally, the bottle travels eastward on the North Pacific Current. The gently rolling vortexes of the Eastern and Western Garbage Patches gradually draw in the bottle.

The amount of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch accumulates because much of it is not biodegradable. Many plastics, for instance, do not wear down; they simply break into tinier and tinier pieces.

For many people, the idea of a "garbage patch" conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Microplastics can't always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn't show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes.

The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70 percent of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
Marine Debris
80 percent of plastic in the ocean is estimated to come from land-based sources, with the remaining 20 percent coming from boats and other marine sources. These percentages vary by region, however. A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, due largely to ocean current dynamics and increased fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean.

While many different types of trash enter the ocean, plastics make up the majority of marine debris for two reasons. First, plastic's durability, low cost, and malleability mean that it's being used in more and more consumer and industrial products. Second, plastic goods do not biodegrade but instead, break down into smaller pieces.

In the ocean, the sun breaks down these plastics into tinier and tinier pieces, a process known as photodegradation. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups.

Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life in the gyre. For instance, loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs.

Seals and other marine mammals are especially at risk. They can get entangled in abandoned plastic fishing nets, which are being discarded largely due to inclement weather and illegal fishing. Seals and other mammals often drown in these forgotten nets-a phenomenon known as "ghost fishing."

Marine debris can also disturb marine food webs in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. As microplastics and other trash collect on or near the surface of the ocean, they block sunlight from reaching plankton and algae below. Algae and plankton are the most common autotrophs, or producers, in the marine food web. Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their own nutrients from carbon and sunlight.

If algae and plankton communities are threatened, the entire food web may change. Animals that feed on algae and plankton, such as fish and turtles, will have less food. If populations of those animals decrease, there will be less food for apex predators such as tuna, sharks, and whales. Eventually, seafood becomes less available and more expensive for people.

These dangers are compounded by the fact that plastics both leach out and absorb harmful pollutants. As plastics break down through photodegradation, they leach out colorants and chemicals, such as bisphenol A (BPA), that have been linked to environmental and health problems. Conversely, plastics can also absorb pollutants, such as PCBs, from the seawater. These chemicals can then enter the food chain when consumed by marine life.
Patching Up the Patch
Cleaning up marine debris is not as easy as it sounds. Many microplastics are the same size as small sea animals, so nets designed to scoop up trash would catch these creatures as well. Even if we could design nets that would just catch garbage, the size of the oceans makes this job far too time-consuming to consider. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program has estimated that it would take 67 ships one year to clean up less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean.

Many expeditions have traveled through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Charles Moore, who discovered the patch in 1997, continues to raise awareness through his own environmental organization, the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. During a 2014 expedition, Moore and his team used aerial drones, to assess from above the extent of the trash below. The drones determined that there is 100 times more plastic by weight than previously measured. The team also discovered more permanent plastic features, or islands, some over 15 meters (50 feet) in length.

All the floating plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch inspired National Geographic Emerging Explorer David de Rothschild and his team at Adventure Ecology to create a large catamaran made of plastic bottles: the . The sturdiness of the Plastiki displayed the strength and durability of plastics, the creative ways that they can be repurposed, and the threat they pose to the environment when they don't decompose. In 2010, the crew successfully navigated the Plastiki from San Francisco, California, to Sydney, Australia.

Scientists and explorers agree that limiting or eliminating our use of disposable plastics and increasing our use of biodegradable resources will be the best way to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Organizations such as the Plastic Pollution Coalition and the Plastic Oceans Foundation are using social media and direct action campaigns to support individuals, manufacturers, and businesses in their transition from toxic, disposable plastics to biodegradable or reusable materials.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific. Marine debris is litter that ends up in the ocean, seas, and other large bodies of water.

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we can try to build machines that don't harm sea animals and fish or their habitats while still cleaning the trash

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The Race to Explore the Ocean’s Twilight Zone

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As marine scientists strive to understand the mysteries of the deep, the miners are moving in.

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#teamseas

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How it Works

#TeamSeas will be one of the biggest, baddest, most-impactful cleanup projects of all time-and here's how we're doing it. Scroll on to see our cutting-edge river Interceptors, info on locally-organized cleanups, ghost-gear removal efforts and professional expeditions to areas where we can have the greatest conservation impact!

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Help us remove 30 million pounds of trash by January 1st, 2022 - Join #TeamSeas

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One dollar is one less pound of trash in the ocean.

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A reef is a ridge of material at or near the surface of the ocean. There are natural and artificial reefs.

Subjects

Biology, Ecology, Earth Science, Oceanography, Geography, Physical Geography

A reef is a ridge of material at or near the surface of the ocean. Reefs can occur naturally. Natural reefs are made of rocks or the skeletons of small animals called corals. Reefs can also be artificial-created by human beings.

Artificial Reefs

People create reefs for three chief reasons. The first is to protect the coastline. Reefs act as barriers between the coast and powerful ocean storms. In this way, reefs also protect coastlines from erosion. The Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, has constructed reefs to protect its low-lying coral islands from cyclones and other factors that may lead to beach erosion.

The second reason people construct reefs is to promote sea life for recreation and aquaculture. A reef ecosystem is very diverse. Plants, plankton, algae, sponges, eels, fish, crabs, and sea turtles are just some of the organisms that thrive in healthy reefs. The wide variety of fish (including sharks) make recreational fishing popular in reef ecosystems. Brightly colored fish, sea anemones, and sea stars also make reefs popular with scuba divers and snorkelers. Artificial reefs off the Atlantic coast of the U.S. states of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina have contributed to the area's wildlife and encouraged tourism.

Aquaculture is the art and science of cultivating ocean life for food and industry. The reef's size and shape provide shelter for different kinds of fish, so fish farmers can increase their catch by investing in reefs. Japan creates artificial reefs to encourage the growth of schools of snapper, for instance. Artificial reefs can also prepare sedentary creatures, such as clams and oysters, for harvest. Japan is also a leader in creating artificial reefs for pearl-producing oysters.

A third reason for building reefs is to create a wave pattern that promotes the sport of surfing. Surfers ride boards on top of waves. Engineers have experimented with reef shapes to improve surfing conditions. These reefs are usually located far offshore and have the benefit of creating a larger, safer swimming area near the coast. El Segundo, California, was the first area to try an artificial reef to improve surfing. Australian beaches at Perth and the Gold Coast have also constructed artificial reefs for this purpose.

People have constructed underwater barriers for thousands of years. Coastal communities relied on artificial reefs for protection. Two thousand years ago, the Greek historian Strabo reported that Persians built reef barriers across the Tigris River to prevent pirates from India from crossing it.

Ancient civilizations like the Persians built artificial reefs out of organic material like trees and inorganic material like rocks. These days, people use a much wider-and much weirder-variety of materials for reef-building.

Sunken ships have provided reef structures for hundreds of years. Now, these galleons are joined by retired aircraft carriers, oil rigs, and even New York City subway cars. These vehicles are not simply sunk-careful attention is paid to the chemicals they may emit to the surrounding ocean and seabed. The structures are therefore decontaminated: all plastic and toxic materials are stripped from them. (Most toxic chemicals are found in insulating material that kept the vehicles from getting too cold or too hot when in use.) Carefully placed explosive devices detonate and sink the structures in a precise location. The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is now a reef in the Gulf of Mexico. Subway cars have been sunk for reefs along the East Coast of the U.S. from New Jersey to Georgia.

In warm waters, life on these types of metallic artificial reefs is encouraged by a process called mineral accretion. An electric charge is applied to the structure. This charge causes a mineral, limestone, to build up (accrete) directly on the surface of the metal. Corals attach themselves to the limestone and add to it.

Reef balls are another type of artificial reef structure. Reef balls are circular structures with holes and nodules for organisms to swim through and live in. They are constructed using concrete and a special type of chemical compound called microsilica. Microsilica helps prevent corrosion and adds strength to the structure. Reef balls are used for completely artificial reefs, reef restoration, and erosion control. Reef balls have been used in places from Prince William Sound, Alaska, to the waters of the Persian Gulf off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

Natural Reefs

There are several types of natural reefs. "Live-bottom" reefs are ledges or outcroppings of rock. Organisms such as sea anemones and seaweeds attach themselves directly to this rock, forming a live-bottom reef for fish and plants. The jagged rocks provide overhangs and protection for fish and other marine life, such as seals.

Oyster beds, also called shellfish reefs, are a unique type of live-bottom reef. Oyster larvae attach themselves to large adult oysters at the bottom of the reef, building layers into huge oyster columns. Oyster shells, not rocks, provide the hard surface on which reef organisms like sponges can grow. They provide protection for fish like gobies and a food source for animals like turtles. Oyster beds can be seen at low tide in the Chesapeake Bay in the U.S.

The most familiar type of natural reef, however, is the coral reef. These multicolored limestone ridges are built by tiny sea animals called corals. Their hard outer skeletons (exoskeletons) are what make up coral reefs. There are many different kinds of corals. The ones that build reefs are known as hard, or stony, corals. Corals that do not produce exoskeletons are known as soft corals.

Coral reefs grow slowly, usually at the rate of only a few centimeters each year. Some have formed over millions of years and measure hundreds of meters thick. The largest is the Great Barrier Reef off the northeast coast of Australia. It stretches for 3,000 kilometers (1,600 miles).

Coral reefs provide shelter for thousands of kinds of sea animals. As the reefs build up along coastlines and form new islands, they change the face of the Earth.

Coral Reef Formation

A coral is known as a polyp. It grows no larger than a human fingernail and is often only the size of a pinhead. It has a simple, tubelike body with tentacles at one end.

Most hard corals reproduce by budding, a process of forming small buds that develop into new polyps. The polyps build hard, cup-shaped skeletons around their soft bodies. Sometimes, corals reproduce from eggs. A larva hatches from an egg laid by an adult polyp. The larva drifts through the water until it reaches a spot it can attach itself to, usually part of an existing coral reef or other limestone structure. The young polyp produces a material called calcium carbonate, also known as limestone. This hardens around the polyp and joins it to the reef.

The exoskeletons protect corals from enemies. Some predators, however, can wear right through the hard material, a process known as bioerosion. The parrotfish, for example, has a beak-like mouth that tears through the exoskeleton to the coral within. While eating, the parrotfish chews and eats the limestone, which is then ejected as sand.

Corals usually live together in large groups, called colonies. Colonies are typically made of millions of genetically identical corals-natural clones produced by budding. Side by side, the polyps build their exoskeletons. As the animals die, more polyps build exoskeletons on top of the remains.

Different species of corals build formations in different shapes. Some look like branching trees or bushes. Others look like large domes, fans, or antlers. The bodies of living polyps are often vivid colors of pink, yellow, blue, purple, and green.

Coral colonies usually only grow in shallow water, often no deeper than 46 meters (150 feet). This is because tiny organisms called algae live inside most coral polyps. Algae are vital to these coral because they produce chemicals that help polyps make calcium carbonate. Algae need sunlight to survive, so the corals will not grow in water deeper than sunlight can penetrate. Algae are also what give corals their bright colors. Because the algae that live in coral thrive only in warm water, coral reefs grow mostly in the ocean waters of the tropics.

In addition to warm water, coral needs water that is clear. Water filled with silt or other sediment would suffocate the polyps.

Some corals, however, do not need algae to survive. These corals can live in much deeper, colder water. Cold-water coral reefs, also known as deep ocean reefs, are found from Norway to the Aleutian Islands.

There are three kinds of coral reefs: fringing reefs, barrier reefs, and atolls.

A fringing reef forms along the edge of a coast and is attached to land. It extends outward from shore like a shelf, just below the surface of the water. A fringing reef is composed of a reef flat and a reef slope. The reef flat is nearest to shore. Due to heavy sediment, few live corals live in the reef flat. It is mostly made of exoskeletons. The reef slope faces the open ocean. Most marine life is found on the reef slope. Fringing reefs are the most common type of coral reef.

A barrier reef is separated from the shore by a lagoon. The reef forms a barrier between the coast and the open ocean or sea. Some barrier reefs consist of chains of smaller reefs separated by narrow waterways. The Great Barrier Reef is constructed this way.

An atoll is a reef in the open sea that surrounds a lagoon. This kind of reef forms when a ring of coral builds up on the sides of an undersea volcano that has risen above the ocean surface. The volcanic peak gradually erodes and sinks below the water's surface, and the reef continues to build. Over time, parts of the reef appear above the sea as a ring-shaped island or chain of islets.

Reefs are broken and eroded by fast-moving, powerful waves that crash into them. When waves break down the hard coral of a reef, they pound it into a fine sand. Such sand covers many tropical beaches and helps form new land.

As it grows, a coral reef provides homes for a vast number of living creatures. Coral reefs are among the richest, most varied communities of life found anywhere in the ocean.

Many reef creatures, including the coral polyps themselves, are nocturnal. They are active only at night. During the day, the corals close up inside their skeletons to hide from predators such as sea stars. After dark, the corals open and extend tentacles, which are covered with stinging cells. (These cells, called cnidocytes, manufacture a venom and inject it into the body of the victim as the coral's tentacles grab it.) Waving in the water, a coral's tentacles catch and sting plankton. Plankton are the tiny organisms (plants, animals, and algae) that the coral polyps eat.

Other reef animals survive by blending in with their surroundings. Many tropical reef fish, for example, are brilliantly colored. They match the bright colors of warm-water coral.

Natural Reefs and People

For centuries, reefs have supplied people with fish and other seafood. Today, some human activities threaten the health of reefs. As people along coasts plow the earth to plant crops or bulldoze it to build homes and roads, they loosen the soil. Rain washes much of it into rivers, which carry it to the ocean. There, the soil forms sediment that can suffocate and bury coral reefs.

Construction and agricultural industries also release harmful chemicals into rivers and drains that empty into oceans. Many coastal cities dump sewage and other wastes into the ocean. Such pollution causes certain types of algae to grow so rapidly that they form thick mats on top of the ocean. These harmful algal blooms block sunlight. This can be fatal to a living coral reef.

Reefs have been harmed by underwater mining and oil drilling. Some have been damaged by explosives used to clear out channels in the seabed for ships to pass through.

People have overfished some reefs. Cold-water coral reefs are especially vulnerable to overfishing because of the technology used. Huge trawling nets drag along the bottom of the ocean, destroying vulnerable coral habitats. Overfishing and habitat destruction have made shellfish reefs among the most endangered aquatic habitats on Earth.

Killing tropical fish for sport or collecting them live to sell to aquarium dealers puts tropical coral reefs at risk. Other reef creatures, such as the Hawksbill sea turtle ( Eretmochelys imbricata), have been collected for their shells in such numbers that many are now endangered. The turtle was hunted for use in tortoiseshell jewelry. Red and orange species of coral are also valuable material for jewelry.

Some artificial reefs have proven disastrous for the environment. Osborne Reef, near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, was constructed of more than a million used car and truck tires. Few animals adapted to life around the rubber reef. The tires were not fastened properly and many broke loose. Heavy tires crashed into natural coral reefs nearby, damaging the ecosystem. Hurricanes and storm surges carry tires from South Florida to beaches as far away as North Carolina.

Climate change is also a threat to coral reefs. Global warming is the current period of climate change, owing to an increased greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases trap sunlight in the Earth's atmosphere. As more greenhouse gases are released through industry and vehicle emissions, more sunlight is trapped. Global warming and the greenhouse effect have been associated with rising ocean temperatures. Since corals thrive in warm water, the changes it brings about may be surprising.

Rising ocean temperatures do not encourage more coral growth. In fact, warmer waters cause corals to expel the algae that lives inside them. Without the algae, corals lose their color. This is called coral bleaching. Coral bleaching threatens the entire reef ecosystem. Fish and shellfish that were camouflaged by the brightly colored algae can no longer hide from predators. Without their algae, corals will die. The Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, has lost almost all of its living coral reefs and atolls due to coral bleaching.

Coral bleaching does not kill coral immediately, however. As ocean warmth returns to more comfortable temperatures for the coral, they may regain their algae, and their color. Bleached coral usually takes weeks or months to regain its color. The Great Barrier Reef experienced a bleaching event in 2002, but most corals recovered.

Protecting delicate reef ecosystems is a global task. Scientists are studying types of algae that can survive warmer ocean temperatures. Chemicals or other qualities that allow these corals to resist bleaching may help damaged reefs survive. Many countries place limits on the amount of pollutants released into streams and drains. Governments, companies, and individuals are working to reduce the effects of global warming.

Fast Fact

Shipwrecked
Natural reefs have stranded many ships. Reefs sit below the water, are often hidden by tides, and have unpredictable shapes. Even experienced sailors fail to spot them.

Sometimes, the wrecked ships sink and become part of the reef. In 1824, the royal yacht of the King of Hawaii, the Haaheo o Hawaii (Pride of Hawaii), got stuck on a coral reef off the island of Kauai. The yacht was stranded in less than 1.5 meters (5 feet) of water. The remaining pieces of the ship were identified in 1995.

Having a large, modern ship is no benefit. In 2009, the 9,600-ton missile cruiser USS Port Royal was stranded on a coral reef . . . off another Hawaiian island, Oahu. After unloading thousands of pounds of anchors and other equipment, the ship was saved. No one was injured, but the reef was badly scarred and the ship sustained $25 million worth of damage.

Fast Fact

Tropical Paradise
The glittering white sand beaches so popular with tourists are actually the remains of dead animals. Coral sand is the limestone exoskeletons of millions of coral, smashed by relentless ocean waves. Sand on continental coasts is mostly eroded sedimentary rock. Coral sand is lighter, finer, and softer than sedimentary sand.

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Illustrators

Mary Crooks, National Geographic Society

Editors

Jeannie Evers, Emdash Editing, Emdash Editing

Producer

National Geographic Society

other

Last Updated

October 19, 2023

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A reef is a ridge of material at or near the surface of the ocean. There are natural and artificial reefs.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world's oceans. It is located halfway between Hawaii and California.
PLASTIC ACCUMULATION

It is estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 million tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year from rivers. More than half of this plastic is less dense than the water, meaning that it will not sink once it encounters the sea.

1.15 to 2.41 million metric tonnes of plastic are entering the ocean each year.

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The stronger, more buoyant plastics show resiliency in the marine environment, allowing them to be transported over extended distances. They persist at the sea surface as they make their way offshore, transported by converging currents and finally accumulating in the patch.

Once these plastics enter the gyre, they are unlikely to leave the area until they degrade into smaller microplastics under the effects of sun, waves and marine life. As more and more plastics are discarded into the environment, microplastic concentration in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will only continue to increase.

ESTIMATION OF SIZE

The GPGP covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, an area twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch covers an estimated surface of 1.6 million square kilometers

To formulate this number, the team of scientists behind this research conducted the most elaborate sampling method ever coordinated.

This consisted of a fleet of 30 boats, 652 surface nets and two flights over the patch to gather aerial imagery of the debris.

Sampling at different locations within the same time period allowed a more accurate estimate of the size of the patch and the plastic drifting in it.

LOCATION

Due to seasonal and interannual variabilities of winds and currents, the GPGP's location and shape are constantly changing. Only floating objects that are predominantly influenced by currents and less by winds were likely to remain within the patch.

By simulating concentration levels in the North Pacific, the researchers were able to follow the location of the patch, demonstrating significant seasonal and interannual variations. On average the patch orbits around 32°N and 145°W. However, the team observed seasonal shift from west to east and substantial variations in latitude (North to South) depending on the year.

The Ocean Cleanup is currently cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with System 03.

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Help fund our scale-up and let's make the Great Pacific Garbage Patch a thing of the past

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At the time of sampling, there were more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch that weigh an estimated 80,000 tonnes. These figures are much higher than previous calculations.
TOTAL MASS AND COUNT

80'000 tonnes of plastic float in the GPGP, equivalent to 500 Jumbo Jets

The mass of the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) was estimated to be approximately 80,000 tonnes, which is 4-16 times more than previous calculations. This weight is also equivalent to that of 500 Jumbo Jets.

4 to 16 times more plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch than Previously Estimated

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The center of the GPGP has the highest density and the further boundaries are the least dense. When quantifying the mass of the GPGP, the team chose to account only for the denser center area. If the less-dense outer region was also considered in the total estimate, the total mass would then be closer to 100,000 tonnes.

A total of 1.8 trillion plastic pieces were estimated to be floating in the patch - a plastic count that is equivalent to 250 pieces of debris for every human in the world.

Using a similar approach as they did when figuring the mass, the team chose to employ conservative estimations of the plastic count. While 1.8 trillion is a mid-range value for the total count, their calculations estimated that it may be range from 1.1 to up to 3.6 trillion pieces.

Concentration

Using data from multiple reconnaissance missions, a mass concentration model was produced to visualize the plastic distribution in the patch.

The mass concentration model, pictured below, shows how the concentration levels gradually decrease by orders of magnitude towards the outside boundaries of the GPGP. The center concentration levels contain the highest density, reaching 100s of kg/km² while decreasing down to 10 kg/km² in the outermost region.

These results prove that plastic pollution at sea, while densely distributed within the patch, is scattered and does not form a solid mass, thus demystifying the trash island concept.

Vertical distribution

The Ocean Cleanup measured the vertical distribution of plastic during six expeditions between 2013 to 2015. Results from these expeditions proved that the buoyant plastic mass is distributed within the top few meters of the ocean.,

Factors such as wind speed, sea state, and plastic buoyancy will influence vertical mixing. However, buoyant plastic will eventually float back to the surface in calmer seas. Larger pieces were observed to resurface much more rapidly than smaller pieces.

Persistency

Characteristics of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, such as plastic type and age, prove that plastic has the capacity to persist in this region.

Plastic in the patch has also been measured since the 1970's and the calculations from subsequent years show that microplastic mass concentration is increasing exponentially - proving that the input of plastic in the patch is greater than the output. Unless sources are mitigated, this number will continue to rise.

The vast majority of plastics retrieved were made of rigid or hard polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), or derelict fishing gear (nets and ropes particularly). Ranging in size from small fragments to larger objects and meter-sized fishing nets.

Size classes

Plastic within the patch was categorized into four size classes:
- Microplastics (0.05 - 0.5 cm)
- Mesoplastics (0.5 - 5 cm)
- Macroplastics (5 - 50 cm)
- Megaplastics (anything above 50 cm)

92% of the total mass is made of debris larger than 5mm

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When accounting for the total mass, 92% of the debris found in the patch consists of objects larger than 0.5 cm, and three-quarters of the total mass is made of macro- and mega plastic. However, in terms of object count, 94% of the total is represented by microplastics.

Categorization types

75% to 86% of GPGP Plastics Comes from Fishing Activities

Once the plastics were collected, a team of volunteers classified the plastic into:
- Type H: Hard plastic, plastic sheet or film;
- Type N: Plastic lines, ropes, and fishing nets;
- Type P: Pre-production plastics (cylinders, spheres or disks);
- Type F: Fragments made of foamed materials

These plastic types were then screened for clues on age and origin. This was performed by examining each object for dates, languages, trademarks, symbols or 'made in' statements.

Why large debris matter

Because the plastics have been shown to persist in this region, they will likely break down into smaller plastics while floating in the GPGP.

This deterioration into microplastics is usually the result of sun exposure, waves, marine life, and temperature changes. Microplastics have been discovered floating within the water surface layers, but also in the water column or as far down as the ocean floor.

Once they become this small, microplastics are very difficult to remove and are often mistaken for food by marine animals.

Not only does plastic pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch pose risks for the safety and health of marine animals, but there are health and economic implications for humans as well.

Impact on wildlife

Plastic has increasingly become a ubiquitous substance in the ocean. Due to its size and color, animals confuse the plastic for food, causing malnutrition; it poses entanglement risks and threatens their overall behavior, health, and existence.

84% of samples contained toxic chemicals

Studies have shown that about 700 species have encountered marine debris, and 92% of these interactions are with plastic. 17% of the species affected by plastic are on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.

Toxic for Sea Surface Feeders

180X more plastic than food at the surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Floating at the surface of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is 180x more plastic than marine life. Animals migrating through or inhabiting this area are then likely consuming plastic in the patch. For example, sea turtles by-caught in fisheries operating within and around the patch can have up to 74% (by dry weight) of their diets composed of ocean plastics. Laysan albatross chicks from Kure Atoll and Oahu Island have around 45% of their wet mass composed of plastics from surface waters of the GPGP.

Since 84% of this plastic was found to have at least one Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic (PBT) chemical, animals consuming this debris are therefore ingesting the chemicals attached to the plastic.
Entanglement of Marine Life
Fishing nets account for 46% of the mass in the GPGP and they can be dangerous for animals who swim or collide into them and cannot extract themselves from the net. Interaction with these discarded nets, also known as ghost nets , often results in the death of the marine life involved.

Impact on Humans and Society

Once plastic enters the marine food web, there is a possibility that it will contaminate the human food chain as well. Efforts to clean and eradicate ocean plastic have also caused significant financial burdens.

Plastic pollution costs 13B dollars per year.

Affects the Human Foodchain

Through a process called bioaccumulation, chemicals in plastics will enter the body of the animal feeding on the plastic, and as the feeder becomes prey, the chemicals will pass to the predator - making their way up the food web that includes humans. These chemicals that affected the plastic feeders could then be present within the human as well.

Affects the Economy

According to a study conducted in collaboration with Deloitte, yearly economic costs due to marine plastic are estimated to be between $6-19bn USD. The costs stem from its impact on tourism, fisheries and aquaculture, and (governmental) cleanups. These costs do not include the impact on human health and the marine ecosystem (due to insufficient research available). This means that intercepting plastic in rivers is much more cost-effective than dealing with the consequences downstream. Learn more in our interactive map.

Resulting from several research missions, traveling across and above the GPGP, The Ocean Cleanup team compiled an unprecedented amount of data to better understand the plastic that persists in this region.

Boyan Slat - The New Picture of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (2018)

Research Expeditions

"To accurately quantify a problem of the size, we had to do research at a scale that had never been done before" - Boyan Slat

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Scientists have been studying this area since the 1970's - usually by means of dragging a small sampling net through the debris. This method showed a bias towards smaller objects and did not provide much insight into the larger pieces, and, thus, the entire scope of the GPGP.

Over the course of three years, researchers at The Ocean Cleanup went on several data collection missions. This included the Multi-Level-Trawl expedition, where they analyzed the depth at which buoyant plastic debris may be vertically distributed; the Mega Expedition using vessels to cross the patch with many trawls at once; and the Aerial Expedition which involved the use of a plane flying at low altitude to observe the debris from above.

2015 - Multi-Level-Trawl Expedition

Realizing that previous methods of analyzing the plastic in the patch needed improvement, The Ocean Cleanup designed a new research tool, called the multi-level-trawl, which allowed measurements of 11 water layers simultaneously going as far down as 5 meters below surface level. This trawl was then used in the Vertical Distribution Research.

The multi-level-trawl allowed the team to study further down into the water and understand to which depths buoyant plastic may be distributed. Through these studies, it was observed that buoyant plastic floats primarily in the first few meters of the water.

2015 - Mega Expedition

In 2015, 30 vessels and 652 surface nets, in parallel, crossed the GPGP as part of the Mega Expedition.
Numerous vessel owners offered the use of their ships for the mission. Of those ships, many carried behind them a Manta-trawl; including one mothership, the 171ft long Ocean Starr, which was able to carry two 6-meter-wide trawls and a survey balloon.

The fleet returned with over 1.2 million plastic samples that rendered an unprecedented amount of plastic measurements from the three months of study. Scientists present on the expedition noted that there was an alarming amount of plastic floating in the patch, and their preliminary findings indicated that there were more large objects than originally expected.

2016 - Aerial Expedition

After the Mega Expedition, the team wanted to learn more about these large plastic pieces that were difficult to come by. Megaplastics are more scattered than the smaller plastics, and, to study this important aspect of the patch, the team needed to cover an even larger area.

Using a C-130 Hercules aircraft, The Ocean Cleanup surveyed 311 km² with advanced sensors and an RGB camera (CS-4800i) that captured one photo every second of flight time. They took two flights and came back with over 7,000 single frame mosaics from the mission.

Ocean Research Laboratory

Once the ocean plastic was brought back to the Netherlands, it then needed to be counted, classified and analyzed.

Counting and Classifying

The first step in analyzing the plastic was to quantify it - to turn this physical matter into data.

Every piece of plastic that was recovered was cleaned, counted and classified by size and type. In total, 1.2 million plastic samples were counted, one by one, and were used to further study the physical properties and toxicity of the plastic that floats in the GPGP.

The Research team takes on the monumental task of counting and classifying the Mega Expedition samples.

Understanding Physical Properties

Not only is the size and count of the plastic in the GPGP important to calculate, but the way in which the plastic interacts in the water helps the team learn more about the buoyancy and depths of the plastic.

To test this, various experiments were performed on the plastic in environments that were intended to replicate oceanic conditions and particularly salinity. Laboratory tests were conducted to measure the vertical speed of the plastic as it resurfaces.

More than 4000 rising speed tests to understand how plastic particles behave in the water.

Understanding Toxicity

It is commonly known that harmful PBT (Persistent Bio-accumulative Toxic) chemicals are found in ocean plastics, so researchers at The Ocean Cleanup tested plastic samples from the expeditions for their chemical levels. Their results helped them to realize what chemicals are present in the patch and what that means for animals feeding there.

Plastics ranging from various type and size were analyzed by placing them in mixtures that would allow the various chemicals to be identified. A process known as Chromatography. They found through various tests that 84% of the plastics in the GPGP contain at least one type of PBT chemical.

Ocean Plastic Data Science

Numerous computational and mathematical processes and methods were used throughout the study of the GPGP, allowing the team to visualize and characterize many features of the patch and the plastic within it.

Turning Ocean Plastic into Data

When the manta trawls samples were captured and then brought on the vessel, several criteria were noted in the datasheets, including the date, duration, and final coordinates of each tow.

With this information, the team was able to identify the exact location where the plastic was retrieved. The location and duration of all tows were confirmed during a post-processing phase by inspecting all the recorded datasheets against GPS trackers that were installed on all participating vessels. The total distance of tows, for example, combined with the net's characteristics allowed the researchers to estimate the total surveyed surface.

Process Aerial Expedition Data

Aboard the C-130 Hercules aircraft used for the Aerial Expedition were three types of sensors: Lidar (an advanced active sensor that is similar to that used on Google's autonomous cars), SWIR imager (an infrared camera to detect ocean plastic) and an RGB camera.

There were 3 sensor technicians, 7 navigation personnel and 10 researchers who helped track the plastic from above and monitor the equipment on board.

The data from this expedition were then analyzed and processed resulting in multispectral and geo-referenced imagery that was used to screen the surface area for plastic by trained observers and a machine-learning algorithm, providing spatial distribution of larger debris (>0.5m).

A Key to Convert Pixels into Kilograms

The mass of the plastic debris in the GPGP was calculated using imagery from the Aerial Expedition. By comparing the top view surface against dry mass of multiple objects collected during the first expedition at sea, including ghost nets, the team was able to make these estimations.

Merge all the Data into Comprehensive Computer Models

The data and imagery gathered from these objectives were eventually used by our team of computational modelers to build various models and computer-generated graphics. These served as a visual representation of the studies and tests that had been performed during the expeditions.

Research of this nature is crucial when understanding the many facets of the GPGP. These models have helped the engineers at The Ocean Cleanup to further improve the design of the cleanup system, which was deployed mid-2018.

We also use modeling to identify the pathways that bring plastic to the gyres. In 2022 our researchers published a new study based on over 6000 plastic objects (over 5 cm in size) captured in the GPGP by our System 001/B cleaning system in 2019. We then compared our field observations with our 'virtual particle' modeling results, allowing us to see the most statistically probable sources of GPGP plastic.

This indicated that over 75% of plastics in the GPGP - not only the 46% made up of fishing nets, as we discovered in 2018 - are attributable to offshore fishing activities. More research will be required in order to discover if this also applies to the other garbage patches around the world.

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch * The Ocean Cleanup

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The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world and is located between Hawaii and California. Scientists of The Ocean Cleanup Foundation have conducted the most extensive analysis ever of this area.

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A Beginner Guide to System 03 abt the Garbage Patch :D

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A Beginner Guide to System 03 abt the Garbage Patch :D

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Look

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This week, we deployed System 03 in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for the first time. Nearly three times larger than our previous technology and capable of cleaning the area of a football field every five seconds, the arrival of System 03 marks a huge leap forward in our mission of ridding the oceans of plastic. We explain how System 03 works in ten questions. What is System 03?
System 03 is a cleaning system which removes plastic from the ocean, designed, deployed and operated by The Ocean Cleanup. The system consists of a floating barrier approximately 2.2 km (1.4 miles) long, which is towed between two slow-moving vessels. This barrier suspends a screen extending 4 meters (13 feet) below the surface of the water, where most floating plastic is encountered.

System 03 is The Ocean Cleanup's third iteration of cleaning technology and was deployed to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) in August 2023 following testing with System 001 and the success of System 002, which extracted over 250,000 kg (620,000 lbs) of plastic from the GPGP between 2021 and 2023.

How does System 03 remove plastic from the ocean?
First, our crew has to get to the GPGP: a five-day journey to the middle of the North Pacific. System 03 is transported to the GPGP by two vessels - the Maersk Tender and the Maersk Trader - until we reach our destination and the system is deployed for operation.

Once the system is ready, the vessels tow System 03 at a slow speed comparable to walking pace, using monitoring data and AI modeling to steer towards areas of highest density plastic, allowing the system to collect plastic as it moves through the GPGP.

Floating plastic pieces are guided by the wings towards the system's Retention Zone - a huge sack which holds the plastic in place. Once the Retention Zone is ready to be emptied, it is pulled onto one of the vessels and the plastic is emptied out on deck for sorting and packing. We put the Retention Zone back in the water, and the process begins again.

To see an example of the extraction process, watch this video from the last extraction of System 002.

This week we had our largest ever extraction from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: 11,353 kg of plastic out of the ocean for good.
As we transition to System 03, we see that increasing system size leads to bigger catches. pic.twitter.com/5UcrpATHbi

- The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) August 11, 2023

What happens to all the plastic?
Ocean plastic comes from a variety of sources, from abandoned, lost and discarded fishing gear to consumer waste emitted from rivers. Once we remove it, we aim to ensure this plastic never again re-enters the marine environment by recycling it into sustainable new products, providing a full-circle solution to ocean plastic pollution. For example, we teamed up with Kia to incorporate our GPGP plastic into their new electric vehicles, with the first batch delivered to Kia on System 002's final return to port.

Kia's update related to our last catch of System 002

To prove we could turn this trash into treasure, we used our first ocean catch to produce The Ocean Cleanup Sunglasses - made from plastic extracted directly from the GPGP with System 001/B in 2019. These sold out within 18 months and helped fund the cleanup of an area equivalent to over 500,000 football fields. We're now looking to invite additional partners to be a part of our mission by using our plastic in their products, helping ensure this plastic is kept out of the oceans permanently.
How big is System 03?
System 03 is big - really big. The wing length will vary according to operations and testing, but currently reaches a maximum length of around 2.2 km (over 7000 feet), nearly three times larger than System 002, with the ability at peak efficiency to clean an area the size of a football field every five seconds. The GPGP is enormous (around three times the size of France, or twice Texas) and cleaning the entire area requires a fleet of cleanup systems similar in scale to System 03. This is our first opportunity to deploy, test and optimize such a system, and we believe System 03 will develop into our blueprint for scale-up to a fleet capable of cleaning the entire GPGP.

Why is System 03 so much bigger than System 002?
Size matters because cleaning the ocean becomes cheaper and more efficient with bigger systems. By making System 03 so much bigger than our previous efforts (alongside the multiple upgrades we've implemented) we can cover a much larger area of ocean in less time and using fewer resources - driving down our cost per kilogram of plastic removed and maximizing our benefit on the marine environment. System 002 proved our technology and demonstrated that cleaning the GPGP is feasible; System 03 aims to prove that it is also economically viable. Scaling up to this size is an essential step towards meeting that objective.

What else is new for System 03?
System 03 is the result of years of testing and experimentation, and we have used these learnings to upgrade components to make our cleanup more efficient and economical.

The screen now extends deeper under the surface to catch plastic flowing underneath, while we have upgraded the barriers to tackle the issue of overtopping. We are continually improving our modeling and research abilities, meaning we can target areas of high-density plastic to increase our impact. We are also applying the learnings we've taken from System 002 relating to weather conditions, which will help us plan efficiently for the harsh North Pacific winter when we pause our activities.

We have drastically increased our monitoring capabilities, growing our camera array and applying AI to allow us to process huge amounts of previously unstudied data. As our plastic catch continues to increase, we're exploring new ways to compress and store our catch on deck - allowing us to bring back more plastic per trip and reducing our total transit.

With these additions and the replaced or upgraded components throughout to increase our uptime and reliability, System 03 is not just bigger: it's better.

How do you make sure System 03 is safe for marine life?
Protecting the marine environment is at the center of our mission and we take every possible precaution to ensure our activities have the maximum net impact on life in the GPGP. System 002 performed well in this regard, with over 99% of its catch by weight consisting solely of plastic (see our April 2023 update).

The main new addition to System 03's mitigation measures is what we call the MASH: the Marine Animal Safety Hatch. This is located inside the Retention Zone, which is monitored by underwater cameras. If an animal is spotted in the Retention Zone, the MASH is activated, blocking off any further entrance into the Retention Zone while opening an exit hatch and giving the animal a clear route out. This mechanism also means we can ensure any animals exit the Retention Zone without costing us a full load of plastic, further improving our efficiency.

Combined with the new camera skiff and expansion from 4 to 10 cameras (with testing planned for more), our ongoing research into the various communities inhabiting this area, and the deterrents and operational procedures being trialed as System 03 is deployed, we believe we can maintain our strong environmental performance and minimize any negative influence on this environment and ensure our scale-up is safe for GPGP wildlife.

What will happen to System 002?
System 002 hasn't gone away: it's evolved into System 03.

System 002 was extremely successful in the GPGP, extracting hundreds of thousands of kilograms of plastic, and was transformed into System 03 during a gradual transition (see our July 2022 video) whereby elements of System 002 were replaced, upgraded and tested in the field. This transition led to the expansion of the wings to the full length with deeper reaching screens, and the final component upgrades in August 2023. At that point, System 03 was complete and ready for deployment.

Goodbye System 002, hello System 03. Deployment starts today. pic.twitter.com/Rc82VDK5T3

- The Ocean Cleanup (@TheOceanCleanup) August 28, 2023

What about the future? Can System 03 clean the entire GPGP?
We intend to continue trialing and optimizing System 03 during its deployment - just as we did with previous iterations, and those learnings will continue to influence us. But System 03 can't clean the GPGP alone - a cleanup this gigantic needs a fleet (we calculate that around a dozen systems would do it). We believe System 03 can make a significant impact on plastic pollution in the Pacific, while becoming the blueprint for the fleet we need to finish the job.

Ocean plastic pollution is a complex and global problem with many sources, causes and potential solutions. We aim to solve this problem with a dual strategy: intercepting plastic in rivers around the world to stop the inflow, while tackling the largest accumulations of plastic in the oceans. We're starting with the biggest - the GPGP - but we're already looking at how our systems can tackle the other garbage patches around the world.
Finally - what about a nickname? We've had Wilson, and then Jenny - what do we call System 03?
System 03 certainly does have a nickname, and we're grateful for the thousands of suggestions - take a look at Boyan's big reveal here...

System 03 is the latest milestone in the 10-year journey of The Ocean Cleanup and our mission to rid the oceans of plastic. Follow theoceancleanup.com and @theoceancleanup to see the progress of System 03 in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Clean the oceans with us

Help rid the oceans of plastic with us, and work towards a cleaner future.

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System 03: A Beginner's Guide | Updates | The Ocean Cleanup

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This week, we deployed System 03 in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch for the first time. Nearly three times larger than our previous technology and capable of cleaning the area of a football field every five seconds, the arrival of System 03 marks a huge leap forward in our mission of ridding the oceans of plastic.

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Landfill is getting very bad to the point where it is going to get bigger and bigger. So we need to solve this problem. This youtube video will explain how to fix landfills, when they first/how they started, and how to solve this problem the Earth has.

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There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.

While Earth's climate has changed throughout its history, the current warming is happening at a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "Since systematic scientific assessments began in the 1970s, the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact."¹

Scientific information taken from natural sources (such as ice cores, rocks, and tree rings) and from modern equipment (like satellites and instruments) all show the signs of a changing climate.

From global temperature rise to melting ice sheets, the evidence of a warming planet abounds.

The rate of change since the mid-20th century is unprecedented over millennia.

Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era - and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth's orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

The current warming trend is different because it is clearly the result of human activities since the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia.1 It is undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped more of the Sun's energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.

Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the world. These data, collected over many years, reveal the signs and patterns of a changing climate.

Scientists demonstrated the heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases in the mid-19th century.² Many of the science instruments NASA uses to study our climate focus on how these gases affect the movement of infrared radiation through the atmosphere. From the measured impacts of increases in these gases, there is no question that increased greenhouse gas levels warm Earth in response.

Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth's climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age. Carbon dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.³

The Evidence for Rapid Climate Change Is Compelling:

Global Temperature Is Rising

The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities.4 Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being the warmest. The years 2016 and 2020 are tied for the warmest year on record.5

Image credit: Ashwin Kumar, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

Ocean Acidification Is Increasing

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%.13, 14 This increase is due to humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the ocean. The ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in recent decades (7.2 to 10.8 billion metric tons per year). 15, 16

Image credit: NOAA

Header image shows clouds imitating mountains as the sun sets after midnight as seen from Denali's backcountry Unit 13 on June 14, 2019. Credit: NPS/Emily Mesner
Image credit in list of evidence: Ashwin Kumar, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.

Discover More Topics From NASA

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Takeaways The rate of change since the mid-20th century is unprecedented over millennia. Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate [...]

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climate change

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Frontiers | Grand challenges in climate research

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Climate change has been at the forefront of environmental concerns for over a quarter of a century. The sequence of reports published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 1990, 1996, 2001, 2007, 2013) has been instrumental in bringing climate issues to the attention of the public and policy-makers alike. In 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED-1992, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) identified climate change as one of the major environmental challenges facing humankind and the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) was ratified on this occasion, thereby acknowledging the concerns of governments related to the impacts and risks to environmental resources, local to national economies, and society resulting from a changing climate. The two other major UN conventions drafted at UNCED-1992, namely the biodiversity and the desertification conventions, have never received the attention that the FCCC has, particularly since the Kyoto Protocol, aimed at reducing anthropogenic carbon emissions into the atmosphere, was signed in 1997. Despite much criticism as to the slow pace of negotiations and the limited success in the implementation of the Protocol, it remains to this day a unique attempt to address the greenhouse-gas problem at the global scale.

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NASA, NSF Plunge Into Ocean ‘Twilight Zone’ to Explore Ecosystem Carbon Flow - NASA

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A large multidisciplinary team of scientists, equipped with advanced underwater robotics and an array of analytical instrumentation, will set sail for the

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NASA is a global leader in studying Earth’s changing climate.

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amount of pounds of garbage in garbage patch

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amount of pounds of garbage in garbage patch

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Human-caused, or anthropogenic activities, are major threats to coral reefs. Pollution, overfishing, destructive fishing practices using dynamite or cyanide, collecting live corals for the aquarium market, mining coral for building materials, and a warming climate are some of the many ways that people damage reefs all around the world every day.

One of the most significant threats to reefs is pollution. Land-based runoff and pollutant discharges can result from dredging, coastal development, agricultural and deforestation activities, and sewage treatment plant operations. This runoff may contain sediments, nutrients, chemicals, insecticides, oil, and debris.

When some pollutants enter the water, nutrient levels can increase, promoting the rapid growth of algae and other organisms that can smother corals.

Coral reefs also are affected by leaking fuels, anti-fouling paints and coatings, and other chemicals that enter the water. Petroleum spills do not always appear to affect corals directly because the oil usually stays near the surface of the water, and much of it evaporates into the atmosphere within days. However, if an oil spill occurs while corals are spawning, the eggs and sperm can be damaged as they float near the surface before they fertilize and settle. So, in addition to compromising water quality, oil pollution can disrupt the reproductive success of corals, making them vulnerable to other types of disturbances.

In many areas, coral reefs are destroyed when coral heads and brightly-colored reef fishes are collected for the aquarium and jewelry trade. Careless or untrained divers can trample fragile corals, and many fishing techniques can be destructive. In blast fishing, dynamite or other heavy explosives are detonated to startle fish out of hiding places. This practice indiscriminately kills other species and can crack and stress corals so much that they expel their zooxanthellae. As a result, large sections of reefs can be destroyed. Cyanide fishing, which involves spraying or dumping cyanide onto reefs to stun and capture live fish, also kills coral polyps and degrades the reef habitat. More than 40 countries are affected by blast fishing, and more than 15 countries have reported cyanide fishing activities.

Other damaging fishing techniques include deep water trawling, which involves dragging a fishing net along the sea bottom, and muro-ami netting, in which reefs are pounded with weighted bags to startle fish out of crevices. Often, fishing nets left as debris can be problematic in areas of wave disturbance. In shallow water, live corals become entangled in these nets and are torn away from their bases. In addition anchors dropped from fishing vessels onto reefs can break and destroy coral colonies.

Increased greenhouse gases from activities like deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels for heat and energy, cause ocean temperatures to rise, change storm patterns, and contribute to sea level rise. These changes lead to more coral bleaching events, increased storm destruction, and more.

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national oceanic and atmospheric administration

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Human Threats to Corals: Corals Tutorial

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Human-caused, or anthropogenic activities, are major threats to coral reefs. Pollution, overfishing, destructive fishing practices using dynamite or cyanide, collecting live corals for the aquarium market and mining coral for building materials are some of the many ways that people damage reefs all around the world every day.

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(and other stuff, according to Jameson.)