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The Great Garbage Patch

Introduction

Roughly between 35°N and 42°N and 135°W to 155°W of the central North Pacific Ocean, lies a spiral of marine litter. This gyre of litter is called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is, sometimes, referred to as the Pacific Trash Vortex. This patch is, actually, a sea of plastic bottles, bags, chemical sludge and other garbage and debris that has been growing in the Pacific ocean for the past several years (Karl 1999). The Great Garbage patch extends over a vast area of the ocean. The degree of plastic concentration affects the affected area. The patch is not visible from the satellite photography, despite the fact that it is immensely large. This is because the patch is predominantly made up of particles which are suspended in the upper columns or layers of water. Plastics tend to break down into even smaller particles; therefore, such small particles are not visible from the satellite photography. These suspended particles also do not appear as a continuous field of garbage. The patch is specifically used to define the areas of the ocean which are high with the mass of these plastic particles.

Discovery

In 1988, as the paper was published in the United States by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The paper made a prediction about the presence of the garbage patch as a result of the researches made by many of the Alaskan explorers. These explorers measured the amounts of plastic particles in the Pacific Ocean. The researchers found out that large areas of Pacific Ocean had accumulated particles of debris. In 1997, Charles. Moore returned home from an expedition of the Pacific Ocean. He came back with a massive stretch of marine debris. He alerted the oceanographers to look into the problem which was very serious. The patch is now very frequently shown on the media and reported in the reports, as an exceptional case of pollution of the ocean.

What's it made of?

The Great Garbage Patch has been sometimes referred to as a trash island. How did this garbage island form is a serious question. It is thought that the Great garbage Patch formed as a result of the oceanic currents carrying marine debris along them. The patch is a garbage galaxy. It is formed of many trash islands which combine to form one big mass of garbage and debris. These trash islands are sometimes present above water and are sometimes spread many miles under water. This has made this patch of garbage very difficult to study. It is still not known that how big the patch is (Thompson et al. 2004). One thing that is positively known about the garbage patch is that this patch is made up entirely of plastic. Most of the trash that is formed as a result of the human activities is biodegradable. Plastic, however, is not degradable. Microbes cannot decompose plastic into simpler particles. They do not find a plastic as food and, therefore, leave it ...