Great Pacific Garbage Patch by Melissa Olson https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp Geosystems PBL Quarter 3 - Pd. 5 - Elena Molfetas, Sarah Patton, Isabella Root, & Melissa Olson en-us 2017-04-04 01:05:31 UTC 2023-05-30 16:30:17 UTC hello@padlet.com Our Problem m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502380 Plastic items such as plastic soda can ring holders, pose a serious threat to sea turtles. Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles die each year from choking on various pieces of garbage that are carelessly thrown into the ocean from all over the world. Not only is there garbage everywhere throughout the ocean, it’s considerably worse in an area that’s basically a trash can in the ocean, hence its name- The Pacific Garbage Patch. The Patch is an area discovered between 1985 and 1988 in the Pacific that is dominated by trash overflow and is a huge threat to the lives of sea turtles and other marine creatures.]]> 2017-04-04 01:07:20 UTC https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502380 Ocean Surface Currents m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502476 The Great Pacific Garbage Patch which is located in the northern Pacific Ocean, near the North Pacific Gyre, is a collection of marine debris largely composed of plastic and trash. This patch is believed to have formed gradually as marine pollution was brought together by ocean currents. The entire Great Pacific Garbage Patch is bounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. An ocean gyre is a system of circular ocean currents formed by the Earth’s wind patterns and the forces created by the rotation of the planet. 


]]> 2017-04-04 01:08:24 UTC https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502476 Parts of the Continental Margin m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502498 The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was formed and continues to grow as a result of negative human impact. Most of the trash it consists of is fed from trash that covers our beaches’ shores, but not all of the trash started there. Trash from highways, Specifically from the beaches in California as well as Benguela. The trash on the beaches eventually is dragged out to sea into the Hiroshino and California currents. Over time the currents will bring the trash to the patch, unless a harmless animal intervenes.




]]> 2017-04-04 01:08:38 UTC https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502498 Marine Life m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502546 Trash in the ocean tends to accumulate in gyres and along coastlines. Sea turtles are affected by marine debris. Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles die every year from ocean pollution and ingestion or entanglement in marine debris. Common marine debris items include things like cigarette butts, cans, plastic bags and bottles, Styrofoam, balloons, lighters and toothbrushes. But the most harmful of the debris to sea turtles are plastic bags, because they look like jellyfish to the sea turtles. Jellyfish are one of the main components in a sea turtle's diet (depending on where they are). For example, the Loggerhead sea turtles usually eat “bottom feeders” -clams, mussels, crabs; but on their long 12,000 kilometer journey- from Baja California, Mexico to the coasts of Japan- to their nesting grounds their usual food isn’t always available to them. So during their journey they transition from eating bottom feeders to surface-dwelling organisms such as jellyfish, squid, etc. They make this diet transition around the vicinity of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, where it is infested with plastic bags. ]]> 2017-04-04 01:09:01 UTC https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502546 Our Solution m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502585 We realize that it is an unrealistic goal to try to eliminate all the trash in the Garbage Patch. But, we believe that every bit counts and the more trash we can remove, the more turtles and other marine life we can help save!
We think that if beach towns, specifically in California, increase their awareness about the effect of plastic litter on marine life, impose a tax on any food or drink containers made of plastic, and set up recycling and trash bins we can really make a difference.
By putting up signs on beaches that highlight the severe dangers that our litter creates, we can help inform citizens and hopefully people will make better decisions about garbage disposal. If the beach town has pamphlets that provide ways to avoid disposing trash in the ocean, people can look at them and become more informed on how they can change their habits.
If beach towns impose taxes on plastic food and drink containers, most people would either stop buying or buy less plastic containers.
Our last idea would be to set up trash and recycling bins on the beach so that people have an easy and accessible way to dispose of trash instead of dumping it in the water.




]]> 2017-04-04 01:09:20 UTC https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502585 Conclusion m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502630 In conclusion, our goal is to lower the danger for sea turtles caused by plastic in the ocean, specifically The Great Garbage Patch, an area in the ocean that contains mass amounts of garbage. We hope to achieve this goal by making plastic use and disposal more strict in beach towns, considering their trash makes its way the quickest to the Patch. We can enforce this by imposing a tax on plastic food and water containers, informing the indigenous people and tourists of the area about the major concerns regarding plastic and sea life, and we can hand out informational pamphlets that highlight the reasons behind the many turtle deaths that we ultimately cause.


]]> 2017-04-04 01:09:39 UTC https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164502630 m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164504411 2017-04-04 01:26:35 UTC https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164504411 m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164504585 2017-04-04 01:28:17 UTC https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164504585 Sources m1365123 https://padlet.com/m1365123/2b37udnxx3xp/wish/164505321 http://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/

http://www.surfscience.org/articles/marine-litter-and-ocean-currents

http://www.seaturtles.org 

http://www.seeturtles.org/ocean-plastic/

http://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/



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