Great Pacific Garbage Patch Affects Marine Life

20 billion pounds of the world’s plastic winds up in the ocean annually. This plastic can be found swirling, covering about 40% of the world’s oceans surfaces (Center for Biological Diversity). Carried by water currents and wind combined, these man made, non-biodegradable materials have accumulated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), also known as “the world’s largest landfill.” Estimated to be twice the size of Texas, the Patch spans from the West Coast of North America to Japan (National Geographic). Often thought of as large islands of floating plastic, in reality the GPGP is an area of plastics broken down into smaller polymer molecules distributed across the ocean (Grant A Harse). This area of tiny plastic polymers raises concerns of bio magnification, animal harm, ocean pollution, and human use of plastics. Because the GPGP is so far from any country’s coastline and is difficult to track, no nation is willing to take responsibility or provide funding to clean it up. In addition to this issue, policies that already have been formed only target point source ship dumping. 80% of ocean debris come from land, so only a small percentage of waste disposal from ships is addressed (Dautel, Susan). In order create a solution to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, human behaviors will have to change to reduce use and consumption of plastic and to push for urban runoff/nonpoint waste to be better addressed on the local, national, and

Every day, many people around the world dump trash into rivers or off of boats. To them it’s “out of sight, out of mind”, but it’s not that easy for inhabitants of the ocean. As the garbage flows from rivers into the oceans, it eventually combines with the garbage already floating in the ocean and results in garbage patches, which all

In today’s world it’s hard to go anywhere without finding something wrapped in plastic. Plastic bags, packages, bottles and other items are scattered across the world. This has become a problem for the entire world and specifically the oceans. Plastic and other garbages that are resistant to the natural recycling process take a long time to recycle. These items will gather at certain points in the pacific ocean. Such places are known as garbage patches. The garbage patch isn’t the only thing causing problems for our oceans. Dead zones and rising ph levels are also contributing to create uninhabitable areas within the ocean. Depending on the ability of the marine life, some will make it to a place they can live, while others will not have enough oxygen, or proper ph levels to maintain their own lives. With marine debris rampant throughout the oceans accumulation is a real problem.

Most of the garbage, in the Pacific Garbage Patch, are different types of plastic. Unfortunately, unlike other materials, plastics take years to break down. Instead of biodegrading like organic materials, the plastics go through a process of photodegradation, which breaks the plastic into molecular size pieces. The sea life, unable to see the miniscule plastics, swallow them up. It has been shown that towards the top of the pyramid, humans are also consuming the plastics that the animals had once eaten.

More than 750,000 pieces of microplastic can be found in just one square kilometer of it. Approximately 80 percent of its debris comes from land, 10 percent is made up of over 700,000 tons of commercial fishing nets, and the remaining 10 percent consists miscellaneous objects discarded by recreational and commercial ships. What is it? The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The garbage patch lies in the Pacific Ocean between the west coasts of America and the East coasts of Asia. Because the effects on marine life caused by the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are detrimental to their habitat, diet, and

Plastic comes in innumerable shapes and sizes; it is used for various purposes. We use it to bag our groceries, pay with it, drink from it, occasionally eat off it or unwrap it to get to food, etc. The functionality of plastic is continual and surrounds us, so what is the con of plastic? When plastic cups, bottles, and bags are abandoned in the street, the wind transports and the rain seizes them into storm gutters, tributaries and eventually the ocean. When rubbish and plastic originate from terrestrial territory and enters the sea it is swept away by an eddy vortex called the North Pacific Gyre. Charles Moore discovered the North Pacific Gyre, or also known as “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch” in 1997. This garbage patch stretches hundreds of miles off the shoreline of California and Hawaii. Scientists estimated its size to be twofold the size of Texas or maybe even more substantial. This garbage patch contains some ten million tons of litter. According to Lindsey Blomberg, who wrote the article titled The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, writes, “What is known for certain is that the marine debris in the North Pacific Gyre is 80% plastic and it's mostly coming from land.” (1) Although the trash is in the ocean, it not only affects us but, wildlife on land or in sea too. Furthermost of the waste in the ocean consists of "microplastics" which according to Kitt Doucette, who wrote the article titled An Ocean Of Plastic is, “Larger chunks of waste that have been reduced to tiny

A large number of marine species are known to be harmed and/or killed by plastic debris, which jeopardize their survival, since many are already endangered by other forms of anthropogenic activities. Marine animals are affected through entanglement in and ingestion of plastic litter (Marine Debris). Less conspicuous forms, such as plastic pellets and “scrubbers” are also hazardous. To address the problem of plastic debris in the oceans is a difficult task, and a variety of approaches are required. According to research conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean each year. That is more than 38 million pounds a day. More than 85% of all the trash that is dumped comes from the world’s merchant shipping fleet. According to the same research, the United States is responsible for an estimated one- third of all the trash that is dumped into the ocean (Amaral). The reason this is still going on is because the majority of the trash that is dumped is in international waters. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea that convened in 1982 defines territorial waters and international waters as: territorial waters are waters extending up to 12 nautical miles from a coastal state, and they are considered to be within the jurisdiction of that particular state or ‘territorial waters’ If oceans, seas, rivers or lakes extend beyond international boundaries and are not territorial waters, they are classed as

Based on the article by National Geographic, there is a giant island made of trash. The name of this trash island is the great pacific garbage patch. This patch is about 20 million square kilometers. Based on the amount of garbage collected there is about 70% of all the garbage there sinking to the bottom of the ocean(National Geographic). The garbage in the ocean are not able to decompose so they just sit there within the ocean. Trash in the ocean is also a safety hazard for marine life. The garbage their kill animals like turtles or albatross, birds (National Geographic). The problem with the gyre is that it is still growing, pollution is still entering our ocean and are not decomposing. The trash also hold chemicals that is harmful to the environment. Examples can be that decomposing bottles leak out bisphenol A or BPA for short; BPA can lead to many “environmental and health problems” (National Geographic). Data from NOAA tells us that these gyres of garbage are formed by the circulation of “wind and wave actions” (NOAA). The ocean holds many wonderful life and creatures, but we humans are not always considerate of other lives, so as a result we end up hurting our home and our

As humans, we must reduce the amount of trash we let loose in our waters and begin removing what we have already filled them with. For instance, Jocelyn Kaiser explains how a man by the name of Charles Moore found a patch of garbage the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean in 1997 and to this day that patch has remained there. Also known as the “trash vortex” this patch consists of bottles, Styrofoam, tires, fishing line, wrappers, and raw resin (1506). The National Geographic adds that the vortex is split into two areas. The Western Garbage Patch is located near Japan and the Eastern Garbage Patch is located in-between California and Hawaii. Currents in the ocean act as a highway due to the mixture of warm and cold water, which moves the trash from one patch to another making the water look cloudy (Great). 80% of this trash comes from Asia and North Americas land and eventually makes its way into the rivers and oceans; the other 20% is from careless boaters (Great). Water pollution affecting marine life Kaiser describes a report by Marine pollution bulletin in 2001 saying the plastic waste that floats in the ocean is spreading toxins and toxin-laden microplastics and effecting animals. Marine life such as sea cucumbers, krill, and mussels are only a few marine

The garbage patch is full of trash that is from runoff or trash left by careless fisherman. In the documentary Plastic Paradise, Angela Sun discusses how fisherman leave fishing nets in the ocean. If they get trapped or dirty, typically the fisherman’s easy way out is to throw it into the ocean and forget about it. While floating around in the ocean, the nets eventually get picked up by ocean currents and

In the documentary “Inside the Garbage of the World”, the main social problem being explained is that there has been a great influx of plastic and other type of garbage in oceans and their beaches. This buildup of pollution has largely affected the wildlife population ranging from animals on the beaches to the creatures of the ocean. In oceans, what is called ‘garbage patches’, a large buildup of garbage that flow to one area in the oceans, are being created. Approximately 50 percent of all plastic sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor but about 2 times that much is actually already on the ocean floor. In fact, according to the documentary, there is a garbage patch that is to the left of California that is the size of half of the United States. Each year, about 4.7 million tons of plastic goes in the ocean a year and it is estimated that by 2050, there will be another 33 billion tons of plastic added to the present amount. Eighty percent of the current pollution comes from the land. According to marine researchers, twice as much plastic debris is one the ocean floor than it was 10 years ago. In the futures, plastic will break down into smaller pieces of plastic, creating a bigger problem from the habitat. This plastic pollution is one of the leading cause for beach and ocean inhabiting creatures be extinct because animals are mistaking these plastic pieces for food. When scientist began to dissect beach animals such as birds, they discovered that at least fifteen pounds of

The trash we throw away is killing sea life. Pacific ocean contains over 480,000 pieces of plastic per square kilos. 500,000 ton of floating trash in the ocean. They found 9 percent of fish had ingested plastic. Of 671 fish collected, 35 percent had ingested plastic particles.

The Truth about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an article that has written by Trayn Laubenstein. This article explained about North Pacific Ocean which is an island of floating plastic with a size same as Texas. In 1997, Capitan Moore observed the tons of Garbage Patch when he was sailing from Hawaii to Southern California. According to Moore, Garbage Patch created by a system of rotating ocean currents which consist of many plastics trash. These plastics have many negative effects on marines life and their ecosystems. Many marines animals in Pacific Ocean use these trash as a food, and they are not able to digest it and they can die. Garbage patch also has bad effects on human life. Many people eat fish that live in polluted waters. Many

of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the exact size remains unknown. In addition, Doucette warns us that this patch contains more than ten million tons of waste. She describes the area to be a “fetid swamp of debris where tiny bits of decaying plastic outweigh zooplankton- one of the most prolific and abundant organisms on the planet- by a ration of six-to-one”(Doucette). It is now apparent that the amount of plastic particles residing in our oceans is damaging the natural habit and this trash is not going anywhere. Due to the currents in the ocean, plastic particles are

Acid mine drainage is most common with hardrock mines where metal ore is bound together with sulfur. The increased acidity created from acid mine drainage has a series of negative effects, depending on the severity of change in the pH level. The acid mine drainage creates inhospitable environments to aquatic life in river systems and former mine sites, with the exception of "extremophile" bacteria (Coil, D., McKittrick, E., and Higman, B., 2010). Acid mine drainage can severely degrade the quality of the water, especially if it's a essential water supply.