The Indian Ocean's garbage patch is. Although the formation of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was predicted in. It's not one big 'trash island,' but the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is Earth's. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has sometimes been described. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine. An ocean gyre is a system of circular ocean currents formed by the Earth’s wind patterns and the. Oprah Shines Light On Great Pacific Garbage Patch (VIDEO. Lies You've Been Told About the Pacific Garbage Patch. The Google Pixel Is the Smartest Phone I've Ever Held.
Great Pacific garbage patch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The area of increased plastic particles is located within the North Pacific Gyre, one of the five major oceanic gyres. It is located roughly between 1. It consists primarily of a small increase in suspended, often microscopic, particles in the upper water column. Discovery. The Patch is created in the gyre of the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone. The great Pacific garbage patch was described in a 1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States. The description was based on results obtained by several Alaska- based researchers between 1. North Pacific Ocean. Extrapolating from findings in the Sea of Japan, the researchers hypothesized that similar conditions would occur in other parts of the Pacific where prevailing currents were favorable to the creation of relatively stable waters. They specifically indicated the North Pacific Gyre. Moore, returning home through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpac sailing race in 1. Moore alerted the oceanographer. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who subsequently dubbed the region the . The gyre's rotational pattern draws in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean, including coastal waters off North America and Japan. As material is captured in the currents, wind- driven surface currents gradually move floating debris toward the center, trapping it in the region. Trash Detective and marine ecologist Chelsea Rochman cruises through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, net in hand. There is no strong scientific data concerning the origins of pelagic plastics. The figure that an estimated 8. Debris is generated on land at marinas, ports, rivers, harbors, docks, and storm drains. Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The name “Pacific Garbage Patch” has led many to believe. Listen to National Ocean Service's Making Waves podcast on Garbage.Debris is generated at sea from fishing vessels, stationary platforms and cargo ships. Most debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the surface, making it impossible to detect by aircraft or satellite. Instead, the size of the patch is determined by sampling. Estimates of size range from 7. Texas) to more than 1. Pacific Ocean), or, in some media reports, up to . Further, although the size of the patch is determined by a higher- than- normal degree of concentration of pelagic debris, there is no standard for determining the boundary between . The plastic debris sampled is determined by net mesh size, with similar mesh sizes required to make meaningful comparisons among studies. Floating debris typically is sampled with a neuston or manta trawl net lined with 0. Given the very high level of spatial clumping in marine litter, large numbers of net tows are required to adequately characterize the average abundance of litter at sea. Long- term changes in plastic meso- litter have been reported using surface net tows: in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in 1. Similar dramatic increases in plastic debris have been reported off Japan. However, caution is needed in interpreting such findings, because of the problems of extreme spatial heterogeneity, and the need to compare samples from equivalent water masses, which is to say that, if an examination of the same parcel of water a week apart is conducted, an order of magnitude change in plastic concentration could be observed. The survey also confirmed that, although the debris field does contain large pieces, it is on the whole made up of smaller items that increase in concentration toward the Gyre's centre, and these 'confetti- like' pieces are clearly visible just beneath the surface. Although many media and advocacy reports have suggested that the patch extends over an area larger than the continental U. S., recent research sponsored by the National Science Foundation suggests the affected area may be much smaller. As a result, it is one of several oceanic regions where researchers have studied the effects and impact of plastic photodegradation in the neustonic layer of water. This process continues down to the molecular level. As it disintegrates, the plastic ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms that reside near the ocean's surface. In this way, plastic may become concentrated in neuston, thereby entering the food chain. Some plastics decompose within a year of entering the water, leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A, PCBs, and derivatives of polystyrene. In a 2. 00. 1 study, researchers (including Charles Moore) found concentrations of plastic particles at 3. Assuming each particle of plastic averaged 5 mm . Nonetheless, this represents a very high amount with respect to the overall ecology of the neuston. In many of the sampled areas, the overall concentration of plastics was seven times greater than the concentration of zooplankton. Samples collected at deeper points in the water column found much lower concentrations of plastic particles (primarily monofilament fishing line pieces). Midway Atoll receives substantial amounts of marine debris from the patch. Of the 1. 5 million Laysan albatrosses that inhabit Midway, nearly all are found to have plastic in their digestive system. ECC collaborates with other groups to identify methods to safely remove plastic and persistent organic pollutants from the oceans. In August 2. 00. 9, two project vessels, the New Horizon and the Kaisei, embarked on a voyage to research the patch and determine the feasibility of commercial scale collection and recycling. Their primary goal was to describe the abundance and distribution of plastic in the gyre in the most rigorous study to date. Researchers were also looking at the impact of plastic on mesopelagic fish, such as lanternfish. Goldstein, Marci Rosenberg, and Lanna Cheng wrote: Plastic pollution in the form of small particles (diameter less than 5 mm) . They are known to interact with biota on the individual level, e. One potential mechanism for microplastic- induced alteration of pelagic ecosystems is through the introduction of hard- substrate habitat to ecosystems where it is naturally rare. Here, we show that microplastic concentrations in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) have increased by two orders of magnitude in the past four decades, and that this increase has released the pelagic insect Halobates sericeus from substrate limitation for oviposition. High concentrations of microplastic in the NPSG resulted in a positive correlation between H. The dynamics of hard- substrate- associated organisms may be important to understanding the ecological impacts of oceanic microplastic pollution. Calling his project The Ocean Cleanup, he proposed to use surface currents to let debris drift to specially designed arms and collection platforms. Operating costs would be minimal and the operation would be so efficient that it might even be profitable. The concept makes use of floating booms, that divert rather than catch the debris. This way bycatch would be avoided, although even the smallest particles would be extracted. According to Slat's calculations, a gyre could be cleaned up in five years' time, collecting at least 7. The company sent crews to Hawaiian beaches to recover some of the debris that had washed up. The main purpose is to educate people about the garbage patch. The 2. 01. 2 Algalita/5 Gyres Asia Pacific Expedition began in the Marshall Islands on 1 May, investigated the little- studied Western Pacific garbage patch, collecting samples for the 5 Gyres Institute, Algalita Marine Research Foundation and several other colleagues, including NOAA, SCRIPPS, IPRC and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. A similar research expedition was conducted by SEA in the North Atlantic Ocean in 2. During the Plastics at SEA 2. North Pacific Expedition, a total of 1. It was the first of a series of events under the patronage of UNESCO and of the Italian Ministry of the Environment. A general overview is provided in Dautel, Susan L. For this and what follows, see Moore (2. Moore (2. 00. 9), which includes photographs taken from the patch,^Day, Robert H.; Shaw, David G.; Ignell, Steven E. Final Report to US Department of Commerce, National Marine Fisheries Service, Auke Bay Laboratory. For example, plastic entering the ocean in Japan is moved eastward by the Subarctic Current (in Subarctic Water) and the Kuroshio (in Transitional Water, Kawai 1. Favorite et al. In this way, the plastic is transported from high- density areas to low- density areas. In addition to this eastward movement, Ekman stress from winds tends to move surface waters from the subarctic and the subtropics toward the Transitional Water mass as a whole (see Roden 1. Because of the convergent nature of this Ekman flow, densities tend to be high in Transitional Water. In addition, the generally convergent nature of water in the North Pacific Central Gyre (Masuzawa 1. Emphasis added)^ ab. Moore, Charles (November 2. Natural History Magazine. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco: Hearst. Retrieved 2. 2 October 2. Straight Dope / Chicago Reader^Steve Gorman Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific Reuters^ ab. Moore, C. J; Moore, S. L; Leecaster, M. K; Weisberg, S. B (2. 00. 1). Marine Pollution Bulletin. National Geographic News. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 1. 6 March 2. The oceans, their physics, chemistry and general biology. New York: Prentice- Hall.^Eriksen, Marcus; Lebreton, Laurent C. M.; Carson, Henry S.; Thiel, Martin; Moore, Charles J.; Borerro, Jose C.; Galgani, Francois; Ryan, Peter G.; Reisser, Julia (2. M.; Carson, Henry S.; Thiel, Martin; Moore, Charles J.; Borerro, Jose C.; Galgani, Francois; Ryan, Peter G.; Reisser, Julia (2. San Francisco: Sierra Club. Retrieved 1. 3 August 2. Sea Grant College Program and NOAA. National Public Radio. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Ropert- Coudert, Yan, ed. Bibcode: 2. 00. 9PLo. SO.. 4. 7. 62. 3Y. C.; Olsen, Y; Mitchell, RP; Davis, A; Rowland, SJ; John, AW; Mc. Gonigle, D; Russell, AE (2. A.; Galgani, F.; Thompson, R. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. National Geographic News. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 3. 0 August 2. Retrieved 5 April 2. Santa Barbara News- Press. Great Pacific Garbage Patch - National Geographic Society. 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. These areas of spinning debris are linked together by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, located a few hundred kilometers north of Hawaii. This convergence zone is where warm water from the South Pacific meets up with cooler water from the Arctic. The zone acts like a highway that moves debris from one patch to another. 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. These four currents move in a clockwise direction around an area of 2. The area in the center of a gyre tends to be very calm and stable. The circular motion of the gyre draws debris into this stable center, where it becomes trapped. A plastic water bottle discarded off the coast of California, for instance, takes the California Current south toward Mexico. There, it may catch the North Equatorial Current, which crosses the vast Pacific. Near the coast of Japan, the bottle may travel north on the powerful Kuroshiro Current. Finally, the bottle travels westward on the North Pacific Current. The gently rolling vortexes of the Eastern and Western Garbage Patches gradually draw in the bottle. The amount of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch accumulates because much of it is not biodegradable. Many plastics, for instance, do not wear down; they simply break into tinier and tinier pieces. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Microplastics can’t always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes. The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 7. While oceanographers and climatologists predicted the existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it was a racing boat captain by the name of Charles Moore who actually discovered the trash vortex. Moore was sailing from Hawaii to California after competing in a yachting race. Crossing the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, Moore and his crew noticed millions of pieces of plastic surrounding his ship. Marine Debris No one knows how much debris makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is too large for scientists to trawl. In addition, not all trash floats on the surface. Denser debris can sink centimeters or even several meters beneath the surface, making the vortex’s area nearly impossible to measure. About 8. 0% 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 2. 0% of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from boaters, offshoreoil rigs, and large cargo ships that dump or lose debris directly into the water. The majority of this debris—about 7. More unusual items, such as computer monitors and LEGOs, come from dropped shipping containers. While many different types of trash enter the ocean, plastics make up the majority of marine debris for two reasons. First, plastic’s durability, low cost, and malleability mean that it’s being used in more and more consumer and industrial products. Second, plastic goods do not biodegrade but instead break down into smaller pieces. In the ocean, the sun breaks down these plastics into tinier and tinier pieces, a process known as photodegradation. Scientists have collected up to 7. Great Pacific Garbage Patch—that’s about 1. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups. 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 resinpellets 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. 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. These dangers are compounded by the fact that plastics both leach out and absorb harmful pollutants. As plastics break down through photodegradation, they leach out colorants and chemicals, such as bisphenol A (BPA), that have been linked to environmental and health problems. Conversely, plastics can also absorb pollutants, such as PCBs, from the seawater. These chemicals can then enter the food chain when consumed by marine life. Patching Up the Patch 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. Cleaning up marine debris is not as easy as it sounds. Many microplastics are the same size as small sea animals, so nets designed to scoop up trash would catch these creatures as well. Even if we could design nets that would just catch garbage, the size of the oceans makes this job far too time- consuming to consider. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program has estimated that it would take 6. North Pacific Ocean. Many expeditions have traveled through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Charles Moore, who discovered the patch in 1. Algalita Marine Research Foundation. During a 2. 01. 4 expedition, Moore and his team used aerialdrones, to assess from above the extent of the trash below. The drones determined that there is 1. The team also discovered more permanent plastic features, or islands, some over 1. All the floating plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch inspired National Geographic Emerging Explorer David de Rothschild and his team at Adventure Ecology to create a large catamaran made of plastic bottles: the Plastiki. The sturdiness of the Plastiki displayed the strength and durability of plastics, the creative ways that they can be repurposed, and the threat they pose to the environment when they don’t decompose. In 2. 01. 0, the crew successfully navigated the Plastiki from San Francisco, California, to Sydney, Australia. 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.
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