Trashing the ocean.

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, a circular pattern of currents, called the North Pacific gyre, has corralled an enormous vortex of floating garbage. Often referred to as the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, the area, which is at least the size of Texas, is like a slowly churning bowl of plastic soup. Roughly 80 percent of the debris, which ranges from bottles and fishing gear to toothbrushes and packaging scraps, came from land.


While the garbage patch is alarming because of its size and high concentration of trash, marine debris affects waters and coastlines around the world. Animals frequently become entangled in large pieces of debris and can be cut, drowned, or slowed down by dragging the extra weight. Heavy gear like abandoned fishing nets can damage reefs and other important habitat. Each year, marine debris kills more than one million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and causes hundreds of boating accidents.


Because of its durability and our increased use in recent decades, scientists estimate that plastic makes up 60 to 80 percent of marine debris worldwide. This creates a difficult problem because most plastics are not biodegradable. (Bacteria don't break them down into simple, harmless components the way they do paper or wood.) Instead, as plastic ages, the sun breaks it into smaller and smaller pieces. In some parts of the North Pacific gyre, plastic bits outweigh plankton by more than six to one in the surface waters.

heres a picture of a sample of the plastic bits found in the waters of the North Pacific gyre. GROSS!!

For more information check out http://ocean.si.edu/ocean_hall/marine_debris.html