Another Oceanic Garbage Patch

A gyre is a place where oceanic currents meet and combine to rotate in a circular motion, like an enormous whirlpool.  It is in one such gyre that the great Pacific Garbage Patch can be found.

There are 5 gyres in the world's oceans.  Researchers suspect that all of these gyres may serve as collection points for oceanic garbage.  Last month, they were able to confirm that there is, in fact, a huge garbage patch in the Atlantic gyre.

Both the Pacific and Atlantic garbage patches are composed primarily of plastic.  That's because, as you may know, plastic is not biodegradable - it doesn't rot.  That means that, as long as people continue to use plastic without recycling it or disposing of it properly, the garbage patches will get bigger and bigger.

While plastic isn't biodegradable is it, photodegradable.  This means that ultraviolet rays from the sun makes the plastic brittle, causing it to break into small pieces, yet doesn't make it go away.  Just makes it harder to see and easier to eat.  The garbage patches look like "synthetic soup".

The result is that while these garbage patches are immense (the Pacific garbage patch is said to be the size of Texas), they are hard to see.   Add that to the fact that they are out in the middle of the ocean and it is easy to understand why most people aren't concerned about, or even aware of, the garbage patches.

Should we be concerned?  How much impact does plastic pollution have on the environment?

Right now, we know that marine animals frequently mistake plastic for food and that some of the chemicals in plastic cause cancer in humans, but nobody really knows what the long term consequences of plastic pollution are because there are so many variables to consider.   Scientists suspect that plastic pollution will cause long lasting and far reaching difficulties.  Most will agree that plastic pollution is a problem that needs to be addressed as quickly as possible.

A plastic bottle showing bite marks

For more information on the garbage patches and their impact, click on the 5 Gyres link to the right.

For photos of the consequences of birds mistaking plastic for food, click on the Chris Jordan link, then on "Midway, Message from the Gyre".  Be sure to read the introduction (warning:  the photos are graphic and are not for the squeamish).  Some examples of his work are below:

Made from 2.4 million pieces of plastic, equal to the estimated number of pounds of plastic pollution that enter the world's oceans every hour. All of the plastic in this image was collected from the Pacific Ocean.

Closeups of the above image: