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Toxic soup of garbage in the Pacific is twice the size of the US
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A "plastic soup" of garbage and rubbish is floating in the Pacific Ocean. It covers an area twice the size of the continental US. This vast expanse of garbage, mostly plastic, is held in place by a unique array of underwater currents known as the North Pacific gyre. A gyre is a vortex where the ocean water circulates slowly because of minimal winds and extreme high pressure systems. Historically, garbage that finds its way to these vortexes degrades over time, but the ever increasing plastic components of our trash lasts for many years.
| Diver examining plastic trash just below the surface in the North Pacific Gyre. (Algalita Marine Research Foundation) |
Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", is, a former sailor who found the sea of waste by accident in 1997. He was taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. Moore thinks that over 100 million tons of waste are circulating in the region.
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About 20 percent of the waste is thrown off ships and off-shore oil platforms. The rest comes from land. It contains everything from kayaks to toys to plastic bottles. Untold numbers of marine animals die each year from the waste. For example, the plastic rings that hold 6-packs of beverage cans together get caught on the necks of sea birds and seals, slowly strangling them as they grow. The plastic waste breaks into smaller pieces, creating a soupy mix with more plastic than plankton, the primary food of many marine animals. All sorts of marine life are being found with plastic in their stomachs.
Millions of tiny plastic pellets from the plastics manufacturing industry find their way to the vortex as well. Those pellets absorb toxic chemical waste, sink lower, and are eaten by marine mammals, thus entering the food chain. Consumers and businesses alike are re-examing their dependence on plastic as knowledge surfaces that the waste is being found throughout the world's oceans.
For more information:
- See an article in the Independent.
- See a video clip.
- The search for the missing Air France jet has highlighted the problem with ocean trash.
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See Jackie's other stories:
Organic food business is booming.
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