Oceanic Garbage Patches – Great and Small

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the best known and largest of the oceanic garbage patches but it is not the only one. Garbage patches are formed in what is called a gyre, a place where ocean currents naturally form rotating areas of water. These currents “suck” in floating and submerged debris, causing large accumulations of junk, mostly made of plastic.

Multiple Garbage Patches

As mentioned, the GPGP is the best known and largest of the oceanic garbage patches formed by the North Pacific Gyre. It is only one of the five major gyres: North and South Pacific, North and South Atlantic and Indian Ocean.

Each of these gyres contain a garbage patch, some larger, some smaller.

Garbage Patch Makeup

These garbage patches are composed of anything imaginable: micro-plastics, entire shipping containers, lost and abandoned fishing equipment, and just about anything else. While the most visible and detectable of this garbage is floating on the surface, the patches actually extend to the bottom of the ocean.

Discarded plastic makes up the vast majority of the material in the garbage patches. It is estimated that there are 250 pieces of plastic per person in just the GPGP alone! This plastic mostly comes from the improper disposal of garbage. It is washed into the rivers and streams of the world and carried to the ocean, where it slowly accumulates in a gyre. It is thought to take about seven years for this debris to reach its final destination.

Plastic is virtually indestructible. It breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, but never really goes away.

Damage caused by plastic in the ocean

The most visible damage caused by this accumulation of garbage is the poisoning and trapping of marine life. Whales, turtles, fish, and sea birds ingest plastic bags and bottles. It accumulates in the animal’s stomach until it eventually dies of starvation.

Another major effect of this floating and submerged debris is termed “Ghost Fishing”. Fishing equipment like nets and long lines nowadays are made of plastic. It is very strong and inexpensive. It gets lost or abandoned by fishing boats, but it continues to catch fish and other marine life, sometimes for years.

Finally, there is the unknown damage being done to the food chain by the ingestion of microscopic plastic by sea life at the bottom of the chain. This micro plastic is working its way up and has been found in human tissues! Research is currently being conducted to determine what, if any, effect this will have on human life. Its too soon to know, but it assuredly will not be beneficial to the human species.

What can be done?

Governments and NGOs are experimenting with ways to collect this toxic material from the seas. However, any real solution is far in the future. As individuals we can play a part, not so much in cleaning up, but in slowing down and stopping the further accumulation of plastic junk in the seas.

We all should examine our lifestyle. Do we need so much single-use plastic? Do we need bottled water and soft drinks? Can we buy products that come in paper, not plastic packaging?

Overconsumption is slowly (maybe rapidly) degrading the environment. Its after-effects are killing marine life. We all have a part to play in stopping and eventually eliminating the ocean garbage patches, be they large or small.