At pacific garbage patch

During a expedition , Moore and his team used aerial drones, to assess from above the extent of the trash below. The drones determined that there is 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. 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.

This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2. Quotable Captain "So on the way back to our home port in Long Beach, California, we decided to take a shortcut through the gyre, which few seafarers ever cross. Fishermen shun it because its waters lack the nutrients to support an abundant catch. Sailors dodge it because it lacks the wind to propel their sailboats. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments.

Months later, after I discussed what I had seen with the oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, perhaps the world's leading expert on flotsam, he began referring to the area as the 'eastern garbage patch. Strange Cargo When ships are caught in storms, they often lose cargo to the oceans. The following are just a few of the strange items that have washed up on shores:. Also called an alpha predator or top predator.

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From massive marine mammals like whales to the tiny krill that form the bottom of the food chain, all life in the ocean is interconnected. While the ocean seems vast and unending, it is, in fact, finite; as the climate continues to change, we are learning more about those limits.

Explore these resources to teach students about marine organisms, their relationship with one another, and with their environment. So for example, the Laysan Albatross in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, we know that just about every dead albatross found on Midway Atoll has some form of plastic in its stomach. We don't know if that's what killed it, but we know that this is becoming a big problem. So we know that there are micro plastics in the ocean. We know that birds and fish and even some larger marine mammals eat these plastics.

We know there are chemicals in the plastics and we know that the chemicals can absorb other toxic chemicals that are floating around in the ocean. So now the big question is, what are those plastics doing to the animals that eat them. I'm sure you get this question a lot: we know marine debris in the ocean is a bad thing Especially if most of the trash is contained in 'garbage patch' areas because of the way the debris naturally accumulates because of ocean currents.

But they're not areas where you can easily go through and skim trash off the surface. First of all, because they are tiny micro plastics that aren't easily removable from the ocean. But also just because of the size of this area.

We did some quick calculations that if you tried to clean up less than one percent of the North Pacific Ocean it would take 67 ships one year to clean up that portion. And the bottom line is that until we prevent debris from entering the ocean at the source, it's just going to keep congregating in these areas.

We could go out and clean it all up and then still have the same problem on our hands as long as there's debris entering the ocean. And that's really the big problem — to prevent the debris from entering the ocean in the first place.

So what can you, me, or anyone do to help? It's as simple as changing your individual behavior every day, creating less waste, reusing what you can, remembering to recycle The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is mostly tiny bits of plastic. These small pieces are called microplastics. They cannot always be seen. Often, they just make the water look like a cloudy soup. Larger things, like fishing nets or shoes, are mixed into this soup.

It doesn't get any better beneath the surface of the water. The seafloor under the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an underwater garbage heap. Over time, most marine debris sinks to the bottom. A lot of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from fishing boats. Some also comes from distant cities and towns.

Plastics are the most common kind of marine debris. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles and Styrofoam cups. The sun breaks these plastics into smaller and smaller pieces. Even if they can't be seen, they are still there. Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life. For example, turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic pellets for fish eggs. They then feed the pellets to their chicks.

Often, the chicks die. Seals are also in danger. They can get tangled in plastic fishing nets. Seals often drown in these nets. Marine debris is affecting the entire food chain. For example, algae are underwater plants. Plankton are tiny critters that eat algae to survive.

Plankton get eaten by other animals, like whales. Ocean debris is continuously mixed by wind and wave action and widely dispersed both over huge surface areas and throughout the top portion of the water column.

It is possible to sail through "garbage patch" areas in the Pacific and see very little or no debris on the water's surface.

It is also difficult to estimate the size of these "patches," because the borders and content constantly change with ocean currents and winds.