THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH Introduction The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Also known as the Pacific trash vortex, the garbage patch is two distinct collections of debris bounded by the massive North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. A gyre is defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a large system of swirling ocean currents. Beach cleaning However, it also refers to the air-bags patch as a vortex of plastic waste and debris broken down into small particles in the ocean. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is formed by four currents rotating clockwise around an area of 20 million square kilometres: the California current, the North Equatorial current, the Kuroshio current, and the North Pacific current. Most debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is plastic. Plastic is not biodegradable, meaning it does not disintegrate and simply breaks into tinier and tinier pieces, known as microplastics. Many people picture a «garbage patch» as an island of trash floating on the ocean when in reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of micro-plastic.
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Micro-plastics can’t always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The micro-plastic of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look cloudy, intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes. No one knows how much debris makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch because it is too large for scientists to trawl. In addition, not all of the trash floats on the surface. Denser debris can sink up to several meters beneath the surface, making it nearly impossible to measure. 80 percent of the plastic in the ocean is estimated to come from land-based sources, with the remaining 20 percent coming from boats and other marine sources. However, these percentages can vary by region.
