1 mile trawl sample of plastic debris of the North Pacific Gyre in 2005.Image from: www.algalita.org
Garbage Island - these words conjure up an instant mental image of a vast area of ocean covered in a mass of floating trash- plastic bags, beer cans, water bottles, bike parts, toys, shoes... The truth is, garbage island is a much more terrifying issue. It is not composed of solid waste floating in the water but the tiny fragments of plastic that will never biodegrade, which are ingested by marine animals and travels through the food-chain. Each year more than one million birds and marine animals die from consuming or becoming caught in plastic and debris.
Albatros carcass with ingested plastics.Image from: www.algalita.org
Lying in the central North Pacific ocean, garbage island is estimated to be twice the size of Texas and may contain over 100 million tons of debris. The floating debris is accumulated in the slow moving clockwise currents of the North Pacific Gyre. It is believed that 80% of the garbage is land-based and the remaining 20% come from ships at sea. The land-based trash traveling from the west coast of North America arrives at the center of garbage island in about 5 years and trash from the East coast of Asia arrives in a year or less.
One of the first people to discover and take action in regards to garbage island was Charles Moore, a California based sea-captain and ocean researcher. On his return from a yachting competition he traveled through the North Pacific Gyre where he stumbled upon the worlds largest landfill. Since his discovery he has developed the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and has researched and studied the development of the trash and its effects on marine life.
Most scientist have deemed it impossible to thoroughly clean up the floating waste, as it spans such a great distance and extends 100 feet below the oceans surface. What we can do is make the effort to use alternative materials to plastic. Purchase an aluminum reusable water bottle in place of plastic bottles, bring cloth bags to the grocery store, if you see a plastic bag or bottle pick it up instead of letting it get carried to the closest body of water. It is up to us to make a difference; Garbage Island will not go away, but we can change the amount of trash that we produce and improve our methods of recycling so that we can eliminate its growth.
Captain Charles Moore at TED:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/capt_charles_moore_on_the_seas_of_plastic.html
VBS Toxic Garbage Island: an excellent 12 part documentary that everyone should watch.
http://www.vbs.tv/shows/toxic/garbage-island/index.php
The UN Environment Program: Plastic Ocean Report
www.unep.org/regionalseas/marinelitter/publications/docs/plastic_ocean_
Sources:
www.algalita.org
www.science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch
www.unep.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch
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