Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, often referred to as the Pacific trash vortex, is a significant area of marine pollution located in the North Pacific Ocean. It is formed by a convergence of ocean currents that trap debris, creating a vast region primarily composed of microplastics and other marine waste. The patch is not a singular entity but consists of two main areas: the Eastern Garbage Patch, situated between California and Hawaii, and the Western Garbage Patch, near Japan. The accumulation of debris is largely attributed to human activities, including offshore fishing and waste disposal from ships, with significant contributions from land-based pollution.
Marine life is heavily impacted by the pollution, as many species ingest plastic debris or become entangled in discarded fishing gear, posing serious threats to their survival. Researchers are also investigating the potential human health implications of microplastics present in the oceans. Efforts to address this issue have been complicated by the fact that much of the garbage patch lies in international waters, leading to a lack of accountability among nations. Various cleanup initiatives have been proposed, including innovative technologies aimed at trapping debris in the ocean, yet the challenge remains immense. Ultimately, experts emphasize the necessity of reducing plastic waste at its source to effectively combat oceanic pollution.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also called the Pacific trash vortex, is a massive area of polluted marine habitat in the North Pacific Ocean. By some definitions it spans a vast area from the coast of North America to the coast of Japan, while others break that range into several smaller patches, with the eastern section between Hawaii and California most associated with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch nickname. The patch is the result of four oceanic and atmospheric currents that combine to form the North Pacific gyre, also known as the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. The gyre collects garbage from the coasts of North America and Asia and from marine vehicles passing through the Pacific. Most of the debris in the North Pacific patch is composed of small bits of plastic called microplastic, which is not biodegradable.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch and similar patches pose a threat to marine life, as marine animals become entangled in or accidentally ingest the debris. They can also present occasional hazards to human activity in the ocean, and research continues into the effects of widespread microplastics on human health. However, as the majority of the garbage patch lies outside of territorial boundaries, Asian and North American governments have not been willing to take responsibility for mounting a serious effort to remove the garbage.
Brief History
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered by Captain Charles Moore, who identified it in 1997 after competing in the Transpacific Yacht Race, sailing between California to Hawaii. Moore noticed collections of plastic debris floating on the surface of the water and kept a log of the discovery, documenting the number of times he and his crew noticed floating deposits of plastic and other refuse. Moore's discovery concurred with predictions about the effects of oceanic currents on marine debris published in papers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, though oceanographers had not yet demonstrated the existence of the garbage patches.
Returning from making this discovery, Moore alerted oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who began working with Moore on a systematic study of pollution in the Pacific. Moore and Ebbesmeyer published one of the first studies of the phenomenon in 1999. That year, Moore's Algalita Marine Research and Education organization, originally founded in 1994 to restore California's coastal kelp forests and improve water quality, refocused its mission on researching marine waste and preventing marine pollution.
Causes and Composition
The concentration of waste in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the result of a confluence of ocean currents known as a gyre, a system of circular currents formed by wind movement and the rotational force of the planet. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is created by the interaction of the California, North Equatorial, Kuroshiro, and North Pacific currents, which converge and surround an area of approximately 20 million square kilometers (7.7 million square miles). The area at the center of a gyre tends to be calm, and therefore waste that arrives in this area becomes trapped and does not spread to the rest of the ocean.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is actually composed of two large polluted areas: the Western Garbage Patch, near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch (sometimes referred to on its own as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch), which is located between California and Hawaii. The garbage collected in these areas comes primarily from terrestrial pollution, with a smaller portion accumulating from refuse discarded by passing ships (ocean dumping). According to National Geographic, approximately 80 percent of the garbage polluting the region comes from terrestrial sources, often washed into the ocean by rivers.
NOAA's Marine Debris Program notes that there are conflicting estimates regarding the overall size of the garbage patch. Moreover, there is not actually a single "patch" of garbage visibly floating on the ocean surface, but rather a widely dispersed network of marine debris throughout the entire water column. The waste found in higher concentrations in the Western and Eastern garbage patches can also be found elsewhere in the ocean, though at lower density. In many areas an observer on a ship traveling through the "patch" would likely see no debris with the naked eye, though the pollution is nevertheless present.
Studies of the most densely polluted portions of the Pacific Ocean indicate that the majority of the waste in the patch consists of microplastics, which are tiny fragments of plastic that break away from larger plastic containers and other materials deposited in the ocean. In 2015, National Geographic reported that scientists studying the patch collected 750,000 bits of microplastic within a single square kilometer of the patch, resulting in an estimate that there might be 1.9 million pieces of plastic for every square mile of the patch. About 20 percent of the debris is estimated to come from fishing and cargo ships, including discarded fishing nets (also known as ghost nets) that trap other bits of trash, creating dense pockets of waste that float within the region. Marine scientists estimate, however, that more than 70 percent of marine waste sinks to the bottom. According to a study published in 2015 by environmental engineer Jenna Jambeck and others in the journal Science, between 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tons of waste were deposited from the coast into the ocean in 2010. According to research conducted by Moore and Ebbesmeyer, bits of microplastic may outnumber living organisms on the ocean surface by more than six to one.
In 2018, a study supported by the Ocean Cleanup Foundation was published suggesting that the patch was 1.6 million square kilometers in size, as many as sixteen times bigger than previous estimates. It found that almost half of the patch was made up of discarded fishing nets, while about 20 percent was debris from the 2011 tsunami that struck northern Japan. Contrary to previous claims that the patch was predominantly made up of microplastics, the study found that most of the patch was made up of larger objects, while microplastics formed only 8 percent of the total mass.
Impact of the Patch
Oceanic pollution has a devastating effect on marine life in a variety of ways. A number of species accidentally consume plastic and other debris, often mistaking it for appropriate food items. Dead marine birds, turtles, sharks, and seals have been found with large deposits of plastics in their digestive systems. Turtles, for instance, are known to try to feed on clear plastic, which they likely mistake for jellyfish. Marine scientists have also documented numerous cases of animals becoming entangled in plastics and discarded fishing nets. Sharks, birds, seals, whales, dolphins, and hundreds of fish species are regularly killed or injured after being caught in oceanic debris.
Floating debris and the abundance of microparticles in the water also reduce solar radiation penetration. Sunlight is needed for the growth of zooplankton and plankton, tiny living plant and animal cells and organisms that make up the lowest level of both the oceanic and terrestrial food chains. Any element that threatens the algae and planktonic organisms at the bottom of the food chain poses a threat to the entire food chain as well. In addition, though plastics are often described as nonbiodegradable over long periods, plastics do begin to break down due to the influence of solar radiation, and this leads to the release of chemicals into the ocean, including bisphenol A (BPA), which has been linked to a variety of illnesses in humans. Scientists continue to study the potential human health impacts of widespread microplastics in the oceans and other environments.
By the mid 2010s, the effort and funding needed to effectively address the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was estimated to be beyond the potential investment of any single nation, and no governmental agency claimed responsibility for addressing it. As the majority of the polluted area lies in international waters, most of the Great Pacific Patch is considered open territory without a clear source of authority. Oceanic conservation organizations, such as NOAA, have promoted efforts for international cooperation to reduce and prevent oceanic pollution, in hopes of eventually eliminating or reducing the buildup of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and similar concentrated areas of pollution around the world.
Cleanup Efforts
There have been several interesting and inventive solutions proposed to help address the ocean garbage patch problem, including a 2012 proposal to build a large underwater skyscraper that collects and removes plastics as currents move material through the building. The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit organization based out of the Netherlands, launched a project aimed at cleaning up the patch in September 2018, following years of development. The organization conducted trials of a cleanup system made up of a two-thousand-foot-long line of free-floating booms with a tapered skirt hanging ten feet below it, intended as a kind of artificial shoreline that would trap debris. The system, using ocean currents, is designed to catch smaller to larger pieces of plastic without trapping marine life. After additional testing that proved the system's effectiveness, the Ocean Cleanup launched a prototype system, named Jenny, on a larger scale in July 2021. Over twelve weeks, Jenny collected about twenty thousand pounds of trash and provided valuable data about the process. The goal of the organization is to reach a 90 percent reduction in the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch by the year 2040, and it aims to build a fleet of cleaning systems like Jenny in order to accomplish that. The Ocean Cleanup also planned to launch solar-powered devices, called Interceptors, that would trap debris at its source—such as in polluted rivers—before trash could reach the Pacific Ocean.
However, many scientists suggest there are no truly feasible methods known to remove oceanic pollution at a large scale. Economic and political challenges further complicate the technological obstacles of cleaning such a vast area. According to Moore and other advocates, the only way to stop the increase of ocean pollution is to prevent plastic waste from entering the ocean in the first place.
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