Great Pacific Garbage Vortex In 1997, oceanographer Charles Moore was returning to California from H

Great Pacific Garbage VortexIn 1997, oceanographer Charles Moore was returning to California from Honolulu after a sailboat race. Cutting across an area in the midst of the North Pacific Gyre (one of five large rotating systems of oceanic currents), he began to notice plastic debris floating on the surface of the water. When he spotted more awhile later, he began making hourly entries in his logbook, noting what he saw. Empty plastic bottles and bottle caps, fishing nets and floats, even toothbrushes were noted. Moore had discovered what has become known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (a.k.a. Great Pacific Garbage Vortex). The possibility of the trash patch was predicted in a 1988 paper published by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).When you read about the Garbage Patch, you see referrals to the size of it and descriptions of “an island”. A 2005 report from the United Nations Environmental Program estimated that on average, more than 13,000 visible pieces of plastic litter were floating on any square kilometer of ocean and extrapolated that the convergence zone in the North Pacific Gyre contained as much as a million items per square kilometer. However, another study done by the NOAA Marine Debris Program describes it as multiple areas (some in mats of up to 15 ft. in diameter) of tiny micro plastics (like the micro-beads found in soaps and body washes) with scattered larger items all over the world in places where debris naturally accumulates, such as the Pacific Gyre. In fact, marine litter is found in every ocean on Earth, floating on the surface and on the sea floor. NOAA’s calculations show that just cleaning up 1% of the North Pacific Ocean would take 67 ships a year—and then it would have to be done all over again, because littering and dumping isn’t stopping. Beach cleanups have shown similar amounts of trash on beaches in heavily populated places and remote shorelines. Plastic containers, fishing gear, toys, flip -lops, and even a sofa have been found on beaches far from any urban area.Besides the sheer ugliness of all that garbage, the UNEP report on marine litter and plastic debris identified 267 different species that are known to have suffered from entanglement in or ingestion of marine debris. Turtles, seals, sea lions, whales, manatees, and fish are just a few. Sea birds have been known to pass plastic bits on to their chicks in regurgitated food. Because the chicks then feel a false satisfaction of their hunger, without any nutritional value, they fail to thrive and gain the fat stores needed for migration. Larger pieces of debris can act as rafts, carrying invasive species for long distances.So what can be done?One suggestion would be a move towards greater use of biodegradable plastics made from plant materials. More research needs to be done in this area, though, to see how quickly the materials break down under varying conditions. Plus, there is the concern that people would consider these items to be “safe” to discard in the environment. The most obvious solution would be to prevent plastics and other synthetic materials from entering the marine environment in the first place. For that to happen, there would need to be widespread cooperation and implementation of strategies to “reduce, reuse, and recycle” materials rather than disposing of them so freely.CWImage sourcehttp://bit.ly/1djPvCsOur recent post on a possible solution: http://on.fb.me/1l7tOJMSourceshttp://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.htmlhttp://1.usa.gov/1smYzdZhttp://1.usa.gov/1X64mAshttp://go.nasa.gov/1HUVKuIhttp://bit.ly/1SmOneQhttp://bit.ly/1C1GpAAhttp://bit.ly/1r3VCOkhttp://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/ocean-trash-plaguing-our-seahttp://edu.stemjobs.com/the-great-pacific-garbage-patch/http://bit.ly/1HZobb3http://bit.ly/1n5Mojvhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch -- source link

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