![]() Plastic can choke and smother marine animals and their habitats and can take hundreds of years to break down, according to the WWF. The plastic could also lacerate their organs. ![]() This results in the animals not eating the food they need to survive. Animals in the ocean can also ingest the plastic debris, which can harm them and make them feel as though they're full, Wallace said. This is just one terrible effect that human-generated debris has on marine life. You've likely seen photos of sea turtles with fishing nets tangled around their bodies and shells. Animals can mistake plastics in the ocean for food. The organization said that number is a midrange value, and its calculations estimated that it may range from 1.1 to 3.6 trillion pieces.Īt least 8 million tons of plastic enter all the oceans each year, and ocean-borne plastic is forecast to double by 2030, according to the World Wildlife Fund organization.Ī western gull wades along the Pacific coast in California. The Ocean Cleanup said it found more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch, weighing an estimated 80,000 tons. There's an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of trash in the garbage patch, according to, which also projects that by 2050, the mass of ocean trash from plastic will outweigh its fish. It does, however, stay within a specific area due to ocean currents. ![]() However, the actual size of the island of trash is unknown since not all of the trash sits on top of the water, Wallace said, and it's a moving target due to waves and wind. It's estimated to span around 620,000 square miles. The Ocean Cleanup estimates that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch occupies 1.6 million square kilometers, about twice the size of Texas, or three times the size of France. However, 20% comes from boats or ships that discard debris into the ocean, including lost fishing gear, according to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. Trash can eventually make its way into the ocean from land-based sources, such as rivers, storm water and littering. Most of the trash comes from land in North America and Asia, like plastic bottles and straws that have found their way into the ocean. What kind of garbage is in the mounds of ocean trash? This is because as much as 70% of the trash eventually sinks to the bottom of the ocean, Wallace said. You could sail through the patches without even noticing you're in them. While you may think the patches are solid masses of tangled plastic, they're actually dispersed across hundreds of miles of the Pacific. They're also known as gyres, which is when two ocean currents come together and create a hurricane-like current, Nancy Wallace, director of the Marine Debris Program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told CNET. The two whirlpools of human detritus are known as the Western Garbage Patch (closer to Japan) and the Eastern Garbage Patch (closer to California and Mexico). The garbage patch is two vortices filled with trash in the Pacific Ocean. Where is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? The Ocean Cleanup's goals include eliminating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Here's everything we know about the island of trash in the Pacific Ocean and how you can help. Addressing the climate crisis requires reducing pollution in the oceans, which accumulate an additional 8 million tons of plastic yearly. Plastic pollution and microplastics have been shown to contribute to climate change, since heat can cause them to release greenhouse gasses. Ocean trash is only one area of focus, however. In October, Ocean Cleanup called that work the "beginning of the end of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Today, in time for World Oceans Day, Jenny removed another 14,832 pounds of trash. ![]() In August 2021, the environmental nonprofit Ocean Cleanup deployed Jenny, its first large-scale cleaning system, which has cleared out nearly 175,000 pounds of trash. The pervasive vortices of human-made garbage damage marine life, as well as the environment, and can even exacerbate human-caused climate change. The entire patch covers hundreds of thousands of square miles and is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Pacific Ocean has been accumulating trash for decades, which has turned into two large, floating islands of garbage.
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