Great Pacific Garbage Patch 3554316 226034018 2008-07-16T15:10:53Z Bentonia School 3056742 /* Phenomenon */ {{cleanup-rewrite}} [[Image:Oceanic gyres.png|thumb|350px|The [[North Pacific Gyre]] is one of five major oceanic [[gyre]]s]] The '''Great Pacific Garbage Patch''', also known variously as the '''Plastic soup''', the '''Eastern Garbage Patch''', or the '''Pacific Trash Vortex''', is an area of [[marine debris]] in the [[North Pacific Gyre]] in the central North Pacific Ocean. Size estimates vary from an area equivalent to the state of [[Texas]] to double that of the continental [[United States]]. ==Phenomenon== The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered in [[1997]] by Captain Charles Moore aboard his 50-foot [[catamaran]]. The center of the North Pacific Gyre is a relatively stationary region of the North Pacific Ocean, an area often referred to as the [[horse latitudes]]. The circular rotation around it draws waste material in and has led to the accumulation of [[flotsam]] and other debris. The plastic debris gathers in concentrations of one million pieces of plastic per square mile in some areas. While historically this debris has [[biodegradation|biodegraded]], the gyre is now accumulating vast quantities of [[plastic]] and [[marine debris]]. Rather than biodegrading, plastic [[photodegradation|photodegrades]], disintegrating in the ocean into smaller and smaller pieces. These pieces, still [[polymer]]s, are eventually the size of individual molecules, which are still not easily digested.<ref name=mindfully>{{Cite news | title = Great Pacific Garbage Patch | last = Moore | first = Charles | date = [[2002-10-02]] | publisher = Santa Barbara News-Press | url = http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Pacific-Garbage-Patch27oct02.htm}}</ref> Some plastics photodegrade into other [[pollutant]]s. The gyre is discussed in Alan Weisman's ''[[The World Without Us]]'' as an example of the near-indestructibility of discarded plastic. ==Impact on wildlife== [[Image:Albatross chick plastic.jpg|thumb|300px|This [[Laysan Albatross]] chick has been fed plastic by its parents and was unable to eject it, resulting in death by either starvation or choking.]] The floating particles also resemble [[zooplankton]], which can lead to them being consumed by [[jellyfish]], thus entering the ocean [[food chain]].<ref name=mindfully/> In samples taken from the gyre in 2001, the mass of plastic exceeded that of zooplankton (the dominant animal life in the area) by a factor of seven. Many of these long-lasting pieces end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals,<ref name=natural-history>{{Cite news | title = Across the Pacific Ocean, plastics, plastics, everywhere | last = Moore | first = Charles | date = November 2003 | publisher = [[Natural History (magazine)|Natural History Magazine]] | url = http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/1103/1103_feature.html}}</ref> including [[sea turtle]]s, and [[Black-footed Albatross]].<ref name=mindfully/> Besides ingestion and entanglement of wildlife, the floating debris absorbs toxins in the water which, when ingested, are mistaken by the animal brain for [[estradiol]], causing hormone disruption in the affected wildlife.<ref name=mindfully/> ==Characteristics== For several years, ocean researcher [[Charles Moore (marine researcher)|Charles Moore]] has been investigating a concentration of floating plastic [[debris]] in the North Pacific Gyre. He has reported concentrations of plastics on the order of 3.34 pieces per [[square meter]] with a mean mass of 5.1 [[milligrams]] per square meter collected using a manta [[Trawling|trawl]] with a rectangular opening of 0.9m x 0.15m at the surface. Trawls at depths of 10m found less than half, consisting primarily of [[Monofilament fishing line|monofilament line]] fouled with diatoms and other plankton.<ref>{{Citation | last1=Moore | first1=Charles | last2=Moore | first2=S. L. | last3=Leecaster | first3=M. K. | last4=Weisberg | first4=S. B. | author-link= | publication-date=2001-12-01 |date=4 | year=2001 | title=A Comparison of Plastic and Plankton in the North Pacific Central Gyre | periodical=Marine Pollution Bulletin | volume=42 | issue=12 | pages=1297-1300 | doi=10.1016/S0025-326X(01)00114-X | url=http://www.alguita.com/gyre.pdf | accessdate= }}</ref> Estimates of the size of the patch vary from the size of Texas<ref name="npr-moore" /> to twice as large as the [[continental United States]].<ref>{{Citation | last=Berton | first=Justin | author-link= | publication-date=Friday, October 19 | date=Friday, October 19 | year=2007 | title=Continent-size toxic stew of plastic trash fouling swath of Pacific Ocean | periodical=San Francisco Chronicle | publication-place=San Francisco | publisher=Hearst | pages=W-8 | url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL | accessdate=2007/10/22 }}</ref> Researcher Dr. Marcus Eriksen believes the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is two areas of rubbish that are linked. Eriksen says the gyre stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the coast of California, across the Northern Pacific to near the coast of Japan<ref>{{Citation | last=La Canna | first=Xavier | author-link= | publication-date=Friday, February 4 | date=Friday, February 4 | year=2008 | title=Floating rubbish dump 'bigger than US' | periodical=News.com.au | publication-place=Australia | publisher=news.com.au | url=http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23156399-2,00.html | accessdate=2008/02/26 }}</ref>. ''[[The Independent]]'' newspaper stated that Moore estimates there are 100 million tons of flotsam in the North Pacific Gyre.<ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/the-worlds-rubbish-dump-a-garbage-tip-that-stretches-from-hawaii-to-japan-778016.html The world's rubbish dump: a garbage tip that stretches from Hawaii], ''[[The Independent]]'', Kathy Marks and Daniel Howden, February 5 2008</ref> Much of the plastic is in very small pieces floating under the surface of the water, so capturing a [[photograph]] of the patch is not possible. Because the garbage is so small and scattered, clean-up is also incredibly difficult without endangering sea life.<ref>{{Cite news | first = Miriam | last = Goldstein | title = Why there are no pictures of the North Pacific Trash Gyre | publisher = The Oyster's Garter (blog) | date = [[2007-10-23]] | url = http://theoystersgarter.com/2007/10/23/why-there-are-no-pictures-of-the-north-pacific-trash-gyre/}}</ref> One of the first researchers to study the Pacific gyre was oceanographer W. James Ingraham Jr. He developed the Ocean Surface Current Simulator ([[OSCURS]]) and predicts that objects trapped in the gyre may remain trapped there for sixteen years or more.<ref name=natural-history/> ==Sources== Moore has estimated that 80% of the garbage comes from land-based sources, and 20% from ships at sea.<ref name="npr-moore"/> He says that currents carry debris from the east coast of Asia to the center of the gyre in a year or less, and debris from the west coast of North America in about five years.<ref name="npr-moore">{{Cite news | title = Garbage Mass Is Growing in the Pacific | date = [[2008-03-28]] | publisher = [[National Public Radio]] | url = http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89099470}}</ref> ==Lost cargo== Occasionally, shifts in the ocean currents release [[flotsam]] lost from [[cargo ship]]s into the currents around the North Pacific Gyre, leading to predictable patterns of garbage washing up on the shores around the outskirts of the gyre. The most famous was the loss of approximately 80,000 [[Nike, Inc.|Nike]] sneakers and boots from the ship ''[[Hansa Carrier]]'' in [[1990]]: the currents of the gyre distributed the shoes around the shores of [[British Columbia]], [[Washington]], [[Oregon]], and [[Hawaii]] over the following three years. Similar cargo spills have involved 28,800 plastic [[Friendly Floatees|bathtub toys]] (yellow ducks, blue turtles, red beavers, and green frogs) in [[1992]]<ref name=Harper's>{{Cite news | title = Moby-Duck: Or, The Synthetic Wilderness of Childhood | last = Hohn | first = Donovan | date = January 2007 | publisher = [[Harper's Magazine]] | url = http://mysite.verizon.net/donovanhohn/Moby-Duck.html}}</ref> and hockey equipment in [[1994]]. These events have become a major source of data on global-scale ocean currents. Institutions have asked the public to report the landfall locations of these objects, such as the trainers and rubber ducks, that wash up as a method of tracking surface waters' response to the deeper ocean currents.<ref>{{Cite news | title = Plastic duck armada is heading for Britain after 15-year global voyage | last = de Bruxelles | first = Simon | date = [[2007-06-28]] | publisher = [[The Times]] | url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1996553.ece}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news | title = Thousands of rubber ducks to land on British shores after 15 year journey | last = Clerkin | first = Ben | date = [[2007-06-27]] | publisher = [[The Daily Mail]] | url = http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=464768&in_page_id=1770}}</ref> ==References== {{Reflist|2}} ==Further reading== {{refbegin}} *Oliver J. Dameron, Michael Parke, Mark A. Albins and Russell Brainard (April 2007). "Marine debris accumulation in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands: An examination of rates and processes", ''Marine Pollution Bulletin'' '''54''' (4), 423-433. *Floating plastic in the Kuroshio Current area, western North Pacific Ocean — Rei Yamashita and Atsushi Tanimura [Marine Pollution Bulletin; volume 54, issue 4, pages 485-488 (2007)] *[http://www.aviso.oceanobs.com/fileadmin/documents/OSTST/2000/kubota.pdf Movement and accumulation of floating marine debris simulated by surface currents derived from satellite data] — Masahisa Kubota, Katsumi Takayama and Noriyuki Horii [School of Marine Science and Technology, Tokai University (2000)] *Pelagic plastics and other seaborne persistent synthetic debris — M R Gregory and P G Ryan [Marine Debris: Sources, Impacts, Solutions; pages 49-66 — J M Coe and D B Rogers (1997)] *A comparison of plastic and plankton in the North Pacific Central Gyre — Charles J Moore, Shelly L Moore, Molly K Leecaster and Stephen B Weisberg *Density of plastic particles found in zooplankton trawls from coastal waters of California to the North Pacific Central Gyre — Charles J Moore, Gwen L Lattin and Ann F Zellers *The quantitative distribution and characteristics of neuston plastic in the North Pacific Ocean, 1984-1988 — R H Day, D G Shaw and S E Ignell (1990) *Donovan Hohn, "Moby-Duck: Or, The Synthetic Wilderness of Childhood," ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', January (2007), pp. 39-62. *Thomas Morton, ‘Oh, This is Great, Humans Have Finally Ruined the Ocean’, ''[[Vice Magazine]]'', Vol. 6, No. 2 (2007), pp. 78-81. {{refend}} == External links == * [http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/our-oceans/pollution/trash-vortex The trash vortex] — Greenpeace * [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15713260 Navigating the Pacific's 'Garbage Patch'] — National Public Radio * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7314240.stm New 'battle of Midway' over plastic] — BBC News * [http://www.algalita.org/ Marine Research, Education and Restoration] — Algalita Marine Research Foundation * [http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n2/htdocs/oh_this_is_great.php Humans Have Finally Ruined the Ocean] — Vice Magazine * [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7312777.stm Diary from the middle of nowhere] — BBC News * [http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm Trashed: Across the Pacific Ocean, Plastics, Plastics, Everywhere] — Natural History * [http://environmentdebate.wordpress.com/2007/11/02/images-video-from-the-north-pacific-gyre/ Images & video from the North Pacific gyre] — WordPress.com * [http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/the-plastic-killing-fields/2007/12/28/1198778702627.html?page=fullpage The plastic killing fields] — The Sydney Morning Herald. * [http://thebeagleproject.blogspot.com/2008/02/real-time-blogging-from-north-pacific.html Real time blogging from the North Pacific Gyre] — The Beagle Project * [http://www.literaryescorts.com/?act=non-fiction&item=514 The Largest Garbage Dump on Earth] — Literary Escorts Services * [http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/04/14/ntm.garbage.island.cnn Garbage Island] — CNN Headline News — "News to Me" * [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22Plastics-t.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Sea of Trash] - New York Times Magazine {{Oceanic gyres}} [[Category:Waste disposal incidents]] [[fr:Plaque de déchets du Pacifique nord]]