Great Pacific Garbage Patch by A.J.

What and where is the garbage patch?

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-20 18:38:31 UTC

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 Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The patch is actually comprised of the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California.

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-20 18:50:23 UTC

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-20 18:54:18 UTC

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. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is created by the interaction of the California, North Equatorial, Kuroshiro, and North Pacific currents.

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-20 19:00:24 UTC

About 80% of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land-based activities in North America and Asia. Trash from the coast of North America takes about six years to reach the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, while trash from Japan and other Asian countries takes about a year.
The remaining 20% of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from boaters, offshore oil rigs, and large cargo ships that dump or lose debris directly into the water. The majority of this debris—about 705,000 tons—is fishing nets. More unusual items, such as computer monitors and LEGOs, come from dropped shipping containers.

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-20 19:03:16 UTC

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-22 18:51:29 UTC

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 more often because of their low cost. 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 oxygen, 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.

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-22 19:01:44 UTC

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-22 19:03:21 UTC

Because the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is so far from any country’s coastline, no nation will take responsibility or provide the funding to clean it up. Charles Moore, the man who discovered the vortex, says cleaning up the garbage patch would "bankrupt any country” that tried it. Many individuals and international organizations, however, are dedicated to preventing the patch from growing.

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-22 19:07:35 UTC

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-22 19:08:45 UTC

I was not aware of this situation, nor have I ever thought this was going on.
People can learn and be aware of this by individuals willing to inform those who aren't aware of this. Mostly by giving out pamphlets or using media to catch people's attention to this growing issue.

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-22 19:16:06 UTC

hcps_eatonac — 2015-04-22 19:17:34 UTC