The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

In a basic summary, the Garbage Patch is a whirl of marine debris particles in the central part of the North Pacific Ocean. It spans from our West Coast all the way to Japan. Marine Debris is any type of litter ranging from soda cans to balloons that have been dumped inside the water. Currently, it’s one of the biggest pollution problems that the oceans and waterways are facing.

Some facts about it are -

• Double the size of Texas.
• Over 7 Million tons of weight
• About 9ft deep
• By an estimation, over 80 percent of the plastic originates from land floating in rivers to the ocean or blown in the wind into the ocean.
• The remaining percentage originates from oil platforms and ships
• Majority of the trash patches consist of plastic

This is important to us because the patch has a major effect on us, and animals. Some of the plastics wind up in  the stomachs of these marine animals. The Laysan albatrosses, a type of seabird are usually found to have plastic  found in their digestive system causing their offspring to be majorly harmed from being fed plastic.The patch has an ability to absorb PCBs, DDT. and MAH’s which are organic pollutants (therefore they have a toxic effect). In regards to us, if these get inhaled they disrupt our endocrine system with our hormone’s. These are also swallowed by jellyfish who are soon swallowed by bigger fish therefore making a huge mess. I concluded my presentation with describing how it happened which was The upbringing of this patch was originally predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to happen long ago due to the giant accumulation of trash found in the ocean. The patch is not one whole pile of trash but instead multiple tiny islands that formed together in a vortex where multiple currents meet. As they converge they create a passage that keep these piles together called gyres.