Some damaged plastic, meanwhile, will lose its buoyancy and sink. On top of that, the buoyant plastic is degraded into smaller pieces (microplastics) through sun damage, temperature variations, waves, and marine life. The result? Irresponsibly discarded plastic floats along the major currents and is sucked into one of five gigantic vortices around the world. At least 8 million pieces of plastic of what’s produced, which is considered a safe estimate, enter the oceans every year. Now, factor in the fact that the people of Earth produce 380 million metric tons of plastic per year, 60% of which is less dense than seawater. Major surface currents are like giant conveyor belts for the planet’s seawater, and with land acting as its borders, the motion goes circular. Ocean gyres are large systems of circulating ocean currents caused by wind, tides, and the rotational Coriolis effect of the Earth.
There are five major marine debris concentrations in the world, and they exist because of the natural effect of ocean gyres and manmade plastic pollution.
How did this happen? What can we do? And how long will it take this storm of our own garbage to strike the beaches of California? The World of Ocean Garbage PatchesĬharles Moore might have brought the Great Pacific Garbage Patch into the public eye, but it’s important to understand that because our oceans are vast, the rotation of the Earth is steady, and only 9% of all plastic ever made has been recycled -this isn’t the only “Great” garbage patch. Today, as the (hotly contested) estimated surface area swells to 1.6 million kilometers-an area that will soon be larger than the state of Alaska-the tough questions are finally being asked. An estimated 2.41 million tons of bottles, bags, and other polymer materials join the churn per year. A result of improper management, dumping, and littering by the world’s population, it’s estimated that between 1.1 and 3.6 TRILLION pieces of plastic float in the area.īut perhaps more frightening: evidence suggests it’s rapidly accumulating more plastic. The flotilla of wayward fishing gear, plastic waste, and other manmade marine debris is choking out ocean life from the seafloor to the surface. He called it the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and this swirling unnatural disaster looming off the coast of California may be a greater threat than any hurricane of our time. Returning from a trans-Pacific race, he and his crew were met by an undulating trash heap, with plastic junk bobbing in the ocean for as far as the eye could see. While cleaning up plastic that’s causing the microplastics found in nearly every part of the human body and even newborns, dipping nets into the water to catch garbage also removes the animals living there, a problem Helm highlighted by sharing a 2019 shot of life sucked out of the water in previous cleanup efforts, pictured below.In 1997, racing boat captain Charles Moore made an unfortunate discovery in one of the most remote parts of the world. Instead, she says we should focus on stopping plastic pollution at the source so the patch doesn’t get any bigger. Given the number of fish and animals living in the patch, Helm said on Twitter that cleaning it with physical nets and plastic removal isn’t actually such a good idea. This is… /wtIhYPV3IC- Open Ocean Exploration April 29, 2022 Life living out there totally SEPARATE from plastic! Blue floating life, called 'neuston,' that’s been in the pacific for millions of years. They reached the boundary of the patch and there they were. Covering their bodies in an armor made from the weapons of their vanquished prey,” Helm said online Friday.īAM. “The blue sea dragons… eat man-o-war and steal their stinging cells.