The Great Pacific
Garbage Patch
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By Leigh Hogle
Where is it?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
is located in the Western and
Eastern Pacific Ocean, drifting
in the North Pacific Subtropical
Gyre.
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Where is it?
It is called an “oceanic desert”
because of its lack of large animals,
giving home to only phytoplankton
and other small marine organisms.
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History

Predictions of the
garbage island were
actually published in
the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric
Administration
(NOAA) paper.

Scientists saw
concentration of trash
building in specific
areas such as the North
Pacific Gyre. They
warned it could lead to
future problems.

There speculation were correct. In 1997 a man
named Charles J Moore, who had just
competed in the Transpac sailing race, was
heading home and he came across the island of
trash. It stunned him and brought the issue to
the worlds attention.
History

The garbage patch is
actually two islands of trash
that are together, called the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
It is estimated that the patch
is twice the size of the state
of Texas. The current of the
oceans allows for the gyre to
pull in debris from all over
the world.
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
As the trash gets closer and closer
to the center of the island it
becomes permanently stuck
within the patch. The trash is so
dense it can hold the weight of a
man and lies not only on the
surface, but underneath the
surface water level going down
several feet. Though it is massive,
you actually can not see the
garbage patch from a satellite
photo.
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
The sole reason why the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch exists is because of us. We have created
inorganic materials and haven’t disposed of
them correctly allowing for some to make it to
rivers that lead to oceans.
Why is this happening?

Our own laziness of the inability to pick up
after ourselves is what litters our beaches
allowing the tide to carry out every plastic
bottle or bag into the open ocean.
Why is this happening?

Our own laziness of the inability to pick up
after ourselves is what litters our beaches
allowing the tide to carry out every plastic
bottle or bag into the open ocean. The current
have then carried the trash to these swirling
gyres where it becomes one mass body or
floating trash.
Why is this happening?

The island of trash is changing the
entire environment around the mass by
allowing small micro particles of plastic
to drift through water lowering salinity,
changing the water temperature to
cooler as the sun can no longer
penetrate through the trash only
reaching the first several inches at most.
The light beneath the island would be
terrible and in some places nonexistent
because of how much debris is floating
at the top.
Affect: Abiotic Factors

The trash is having a
devastation effect on all the
living organisms, big or small.
With the plastic trying to break
down and decompose it is
simply turning into smaller
and smaller particles of plastic
until it goes down to all the
small molecular levels. This is
what fish breath through, the
water, as they breath the water
the small plastic molecules are
also entering their body
harming their systems.
Affect: Biotic Factors

The larger animals are
unable to sustain
themselves around the
area seeing nothing can
live there and bottom
dwellers make away with
small morsels every now
and again, but most
animals are small and
require they live closer to
the surface for food.
Affect: Biotic Factors

Other animals are
extremely vulnerable to
the trash and it’s
harmful factors with
many consuming
plastic particles. They
digest so much trash it
kills them.

Animals can also be
easily trapped within
old nets and plastic
rings. Plastic rings can
also strangle animals
slowly killing them
over a period of weeks.
Affects: Biotic Factors

Each state has littering laws trying to prevent
people from dropping garbage at the side of
the road or dumping in illegal sites, but there is
no specific action in place to truly prevent
littering. People still leave trash on the beaches,
roads, and rivers, all which can lead to a dump
site, or the ocean.
Laws
To fix the garbage patch
it would take years of
extensive work and
great organization to
figure out where to place
all the trash.

Can it be fixed?

The way to prevent the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch from growing even larger is to reduce
our impact on the environment. Use less
plastic, clean up after yourselves, be
responsible for others picking up all trash you
see on the ground.
Can it be fixed?

Kostigen, Thomas M. "Environment / Ocean." The World's Largest Dump: The
Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Discover Magazine, 10 July 2010. Web. 26 Nov.
2012. <http://discovermagazine.com/2008/jul/10-the-worlds-largestdump/article_view?b_start:int=1>.


2. Silverman, Jacob. "Why Is the World's Biggest Landfill in the Pacific
Ocean?" HowStuffWorks. Discovery, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.
<http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great
-pacific-garbage-patch1.htm>.


3. "De-mystifying the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch"" Marine Debris Program.
NOAA, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.
<http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html>.


4. Law, K., S. Moret-Ferguson, N. Maximenko, G. Proskurowski, E. Peacock,
J. Hafner, and C. Reddy. 2010. Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic
Subtopical Gyre. Science Express. 19 August 2010 issue.

Works Cited



5. "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Nov. 2012.
Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch>.
6. "Preventing Ocean Litter | California Ocean Protection Council." Preventing
Ocean Litter | California Ocean Protection Council. Ocean Protection Council, n.d.
Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http://www.opc.ca.gov/2010/04/preventing-ocean-litter-3/>.
7. Plastic Paradise. Dir. Angela Sun. Perf. Documentary. 2012. DVD. Film is still a
work in progress but have released a few clips and information on website.


8. "Plastic Paradise Movie â€
“ Independent Documentary by Angela Sun
Uncovering the Mystery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Known as the Plastic
Paradise." Plastic Paradise Movie Independent Documentary by Angela Sun Uncovering
the Mystery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch Known as the Plastic Paradise RSS. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012. <http://plasticparadisemovie.com/>.


9. Captain Charles Moore on Seas of Plastic. Perf. Charles Moore. YouTube, n.d.
YouTube.


10. Blackwell, Andrew. Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World's
Most Polluted Places. New York: Rodale, 2012. Print.
Works Cited