The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Plastic. You can't go a day without using it. The problem with plastic is that it doesn't go away, it's here practically forever. Our oceans are full of it too. Whether it's dumped off cargo ships or finds it's way from land to sea, plastic is abundant in the ocean.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2007/12/are-there-reall.html

What's really scary is so much plastic and trash have accumulated in the ocean that it has formed garbage patches. The most well known of these patches is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. These patches have been found mostly to be comprised of plastic. (1)

The Eastern Garbage Patch, located between California and Hawaii is created by an ocean gyre. A gyre is a system of ocean currents that move in a circular motion. The middle of the gyre is very calm, while the outside moves very fast towards the center, causing debris to get trapped. (1)

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1#page=1

The word "patch" may be incorrect for what the system really is. While there are visible hunks of plastic and other trash in the patches, much of it is made up of microplastic. Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic that can range from .3 to 5 millimeters in diameter.(1)

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1#page=1

Marine life can be greatly affected by these particles by ingesting them, which can lead to negative health affects. Entanglement is also a hazard to many larger marine life such as seals and turtles because a lot of the debris looks like what there diet consists of (plastic bags as jellyfish,plastic pellets as fish eggs).(1)

http://www.expeditionmed.eu/fr/fr/2010/06/galerie-des-horreurs/ 

National Geographic states "Scientists have collected up to 750,000 bits of microplastic in a single square kilometer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - that's about 1.9 million bits per square mile."(1)

These garbage patches are no easy clean up. The microplastic nets cannot get much of the trash. What we can start doing to help is limiting our production of non-degradable plastics, and promote biodegradable products. 

In order to save many aquatic species and keep our oceans clean for the future, change needs to happen now. 

Types of plastics found in patches

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1#page=2

Sources:

(1) "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." - National Geographic Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2014. <http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1#page=1>.

What is Ocean Pollution?

What is considered ocean pollution? Is it,

a) the trash that floats on the surface

b) the chemicals that run into it

c) something we can’t see at all

d) all of the above

Answer: d; unfortunately it’s all of the above. 1

The Truth

In many minds the ocean is a huge, big, blue, and clean body of water. How could the ocean, a body of water that covers 71% of the earths surface, be polluted? That’s the problem, people don’t know the impact of their actions. Or they do, and there is no one stopping them from causing destruction.

From the plastic and trash that make their way into the ocean, to the runoff of fertilizers and other chemicals, the ocean is being used as a landfill. The ecosystems and marine life that are being affected by this pollution are trying to adapt, but how much longer until it becomes to large to handle...

Here are some statistics:

• “Around 60% of the wastewater discharged into the caspian Sea is not treated” 2

• “ In a study released in the February 2008 journal Science, researchers found that human activity -- from over-fishing to greenhouse gases and global warming to the introduction of toxins into the environment – has affected every square mile of ocean on the planet and strongly impacted roughly 40 percent of marine ecosystems.”3

• “Despite the Ocean Dumping Reform Act, the U.S. still releases more than 850 billion gallons of untreated sewage and storm runoff every year”4

• “Plastic constitutes approximately 90% of all trash floating on the ocean’s surface, with 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile.”5

Throughout this blog I will be going over all the different types of marine pollution in detail, and describing different news stories that spring up about them.

Works Cited

Pictures:

Trash wave: http://yesurun.blogspot.com/2013/10/kamuflajl-dusman.html
Seal: http://coastalcare.org/2009/11/plastic-pollution/
Runoff: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/ioc-oceans/priority-areas/rio-20-ocean/blueprint-for-the-future-we-want/marine-pollution/


Content

1 "Marine problems: Pollution." WWF. WWF, n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. <http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/blue_planet/problems/pollution/>.

2 "Rapid Response Assessments." What is Marine Pollution and How Does it Affect Marine Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. <http://www.grida.no/publications/rr/our-precious-coasts/page/1292.aspx>.  UNEP. 2006. The state of the marine environment-trends and processes. United Nations Environment Programme and the Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities (GPA) of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), The Hague. 52 p.

3 Bohle, Bob. "The Effects of Ocean Pollution on Marine Mammals." Ocean Pollution and Marine Mammals – BlueVoice.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bluevoice.org/news_issueseffects.php>.

4 Hohn, Donovan. "Sea of Trash." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 June 2008. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22Plastics-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.

5  "Oceans: Plastic Pollution." TakePart. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2014. <http://www.takepart.com/oceans/plastic-pollution>.

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