Research Paper On The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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

This is a combination of currents and wind that perform a circular vortex motion that collects trash. The vortex motion pulls trash in, while the middle is very calm, so it stays in one place. Most people think of an island filled with trash when they hear the words Garbage Patch. But in reality, these patches are made of small pieces of plastic, called micro plastics that cannot always be seen by the naked eye. The satellite images do not show what we think would be a giant patch of garbage. (National Geographic) “The patch is not an island like most people envision, you can’t walk on it but is more of a plastic soup.” (Moore). According to the website, “¬How Stuff Works”, 90% of this debris is plastic. That is over 3.5 million pounds of plastic. The patch is a gathering place for all the junk dumped in our oceans. Some of the most harmful items, such as expanded Styrofoam, polypropylene, and P.E.T. (polyethylene terephthalate), found in plant fertilizer, has been located in this patch. The plastic is not biodegradable but is photodegradable. In other words, the larger pieces break down into smaller pieces, so the patch just gets bigger every day. Approximately 80 percent of the trash is from the people here on land and the other 20 percent is dumped from ships, fisherman, oil rigs and spilled containers (How stuff works).

The great pacific garbage patch, or garbage island, as many refer to it, is a region made up entirely of waste. It is around 20 million square kilometers (7.7 square miles) in size. This is the result of careless sailors and beachgoers constantly throwing what they do not want to hold on to into the ocean. The litter gets carried through a variety of currents moving in a clockwise direction into the north pacific subtropical gyre. There, it all adds up to form a pile of garbage twice the size of texas.[8]

In this book, Newman discusses debris in the ocean, specifically the North Pacific Central Gyre. She describes how vast and calm the gyre is and states how it almost appears a “liquid desert” (pp.15). Newman explains how people expect this gyre to be a patch of floating garbage, but in reality, it looks clean since the plastic floats just below the surface. She mentions how the debris rarely escape the gyre due to strong currents. Lastly, Newman states how the debris is mostly plastic pieces that have “broken down into pieces no bigger than a kernel of unpopped popcorn”

It is not just marine animals, from planktons to whales, which ingest microplastics. It can end up in humans when they eat seafood.

Plastic in the ocean breaks down into such small segments that pieces of plastic from a one liter bottle could end up on every mile of beach throughout the world.

Researches have found different routes that all the trash could take. According to the research by Erik van Sebilla, the trash doesn't seem to just stay in one garbage patch. Currently there are 5 major garbage patches in our ocean. Their are two in the Pacific, two in the Atlanic and there is just one the in the Indian Ocean. Sebilla stated that the the trash from the Indian Oceean to Southern Australia could end uop in the PAcific Ocean. Also the trash from Eastern South Africa most likely will end up in the Atlanic Ocean. The video demonstrates what the garbage patches are made up of. In this video it shows how most of the trash in the ocean is plastic, which never breaks down. Many wonder how and where all the trash came from. In an artical

More than six million tons of garbage finds it’s way into the oceans. Due to the currents, the garbage ends up in two different locations. Several hundred miles off the coast of Japan lies the Western Garbage Patch, and close to California lies the second patch, known as the Eastern Garbage Patch. Together these two patches of garbage mix to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

What is a gyre? How many large gyres exist in the world ocean? Where are they located? Gyre is the connection between the currents that are created by all the wind from the outside of the edges of the ocean basins. It’s most likely located in Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean.

The global conveyor belt is greatly affected by the thermocline layer of the ocean. The thermocline layer of the ocean is between the deep-water layer of the ocean and the mixed-water layer, which lies at the top of the sea near the surface. Based on which layer of the ocean the water is in can induce many different properties such as temperature and density and can influence different components of the global conveyor belt. Although the thermocline layer of the ocean is a huge influence on the way the global conveyor belt flows, there are many other factors that contribute to the natural movement of the large-scale currents (University of Illinois, 2010, n.p.).

Winds, water density, and tides all drive ocean currents. Coastal and sea floor features influence their location, direction, and speed. Earth’s rotation results in the Coriolis Effect which also influences ocean currents and any moving mass as long as it moves, so water in a gyre might be expected to curve to the center of The North Atlantic and stop. Winds and ocean waters get deflected from a straight line path as they travel across the rotating Earth. This phenomenon causes ocean currents in the Northern Hemisphere to veer to the right and in the Southern Hemisphere to the left.The deep water currents or thermohaline circulation of water is also called the Global Conveyor Belt. It takes almost 1000 years for it to complete one cycle around

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

These shifts allow minerals to be redistributed creating greater biological productivity. Currents are fueled by moon and sun, “When the moon is at full or new phases, tidal current velocities are strong and are called “spring currents.” When the moon is at first or third quarter phases, tidal current velocities are weak and are called “neap currents.” (tidal currents). These currents are deep water waves while surface currents are created by wind. Understanding how waves work means understanding and predicting the weather, like hurricanes. “By studying rainfall history derived from a stalagmite in a cave in Belize, scientists concluded that storms… are curving northward” (Berwyn). This prediction means governments and citizens in the new effect areas can make smart choices about their homes and preventive

The dense, cooled water becomes part of what is termed the Ocean Conveyor and the water eventually returns to the surface in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. As warm water returns to the Atlantic, the current moves pole wards as the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift, warming northwestern Europe substantially. In addition,

Pacific Ocean. It is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, stretching 10 million miles from