Garbage in the Ocean - The Pacific Trash Vortex

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

When we think of an ocean, what comes to our mind is a vast expanse of azure blue meeting the distance horizon; undulating waves breaking on the sand. However, if we look at the above image, we will be forced to visualize it differently. It is the image of an area of the Pacific Ocean that is littered with marine debris It is known as the Great Pacific garbage patch or the Pacific trash vortex. 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. states of Hawaii and California. The entire Great Pacific Garbage Patch is bounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre which is a large system of swirling ocean currents. This mass of debris mainly originates from Asia, North America, and South America.

North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is formed by four currents rotating clockwise around an area of 20 million square kilometers: The California current, the North Equatorial current, the Kuroshio current, and the North Pacific current.

Geographical Location of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The idea of a “garbage patch” conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of microplastics which can’t always be seen with 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 that is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes. Much of this debris is not biodegradable. A recent sampling showed that there are approximately 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch that weigh an estimated 80,000 tonnes. This is equivalent to the weight of 500 jumbo jets. The figure is much higher than a previous estimate. Oceanographers and ecologists believe that there is also a heap of trash on the floor of the ocean because 70% of the marine debris sink to the bottom of the ocean. The heap, at some places on the ocean floor is thought to be as high as 50 feet.

Discovery of the Garbage Patch

The existence of this garbage patch was predicted by the oceanographers, but, it was discovered by Charles Moore, the captain of a racing yacht. When his boat was crossing the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in 1997, he noticed millions of pieces of plastic surrounding his boat.

Captain Charles Moore - The Man Who Discovered The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Marine Debris

It is believed that 80% of marine debris actually originates from the land. Heavier debris sink to the bottom. According to a study conducted in 2018, synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Plastic and plastic items are other major contributors to the trash.

A crate found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was manufactured in 1977

Effects on Marine Life

There are six kilos of plastic for every kilo of plankton. The size of the garbage patch is an area equivalent in size to Texas, or Turkey, or Afghanistan, that slowly rotates the rubbish in a never-ending rotation. The debris is harmful to a number of marine lives. Loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies which is their favorite food. Laysan Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs.

Seals and other mammals become victims of ghost fishing which is a phenomenon when they get entangled in discarded fishing nets. Oysters that had consumed microplastics give birth to fewer and less healthy offspring. Research also strongly suggests that at certain exposure levels, some of the chemicals in these products, may cause cancer and have been linked to infertility in men. When humans consume contaminated fish and seafood, plastic pollution becomes a health hazard for humans too.

Trash collecting on the surface of the ocean block the sunlight from reaching the algae and other planktons, producing a negative impact on the food chain of the marine lives.

Ghost Net Floating at the Pacific Trash Vortex and the Entagled Marine Life

Cleaning Up The Trash

We have created a mess for years and now when we wake up to the reality, we find that rectifying the irresponsible behavior is nearly an impossible task. It had been estimated that it would take 67 ships one year to clean up less than 1% of the debris. In December 2017 nearly 200 countries signed a U.N. resolution to eliminate plastic pollution in the sea, with countries agreeing to start monitoring the amount of plastic they put into the ocean and to explore ways to make it illegal to dump waste in the oceans.

References

1. Moore, C.J. (2008) Synthetic polymers in the marine environment: A rapidly increasing long-term threat. Environmental Research, 108, 131-139.

2. Moore, C.J., Moore, S.L., Leecaster, M.K. and Weisberg, S.B. (2001) A comparison of plastic and plankton in the North Pacific central gyre. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 42(12). Retrieved from http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Moore-North-PacificCentral-Gyre.htm.

3. Gregory, M.R. (2009) Environmental implications of plastic debris in marine settings – entanglement, ingestion, smothering, hangers-on, hitch-hiking and alien invasions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 364, 2013-2025.

4. https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/.

5. https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html.

6. https://en.reset.org/knowledge/plastic-ocean-great-pacific-garbage-patch.