16.06.2022

Great Ocean Garbage Patch And There Are 5 Major Garbage Patches

There are five gyres to be exact--the North Atlantic Gyre, the South Atlantic Gyre, the North Pacific Gyre, the South Pacific Gyre, and the Indian Ocean Gyre—that have a significant impact on the ocean. The big five help drive the so-called oceanic conveyor belt that helps circulate ocean waters around the globe. The most famous example of an ocean gyre’s tendency to "take out our trash" is the Great Pacific Garbage patch located within the North Pacific Gyre. Researchers have discovered four more areas where a “soup” of concentrated marine debris collects. The amount of debris in the Great Garbage Patch accumulates because much of it is not biodegradable. Many plastics, for instance, do not wear down; they simply break into tinier and tinier pieces. For many people, the idea of a “garbage patch” conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Microplastics can’t always be seen by the naked eye. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes. The seafloor beneath the Great Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean. 80 percent of plastic in the ocean is estimated to come from land-based sources, with the remaining 20 percent coming from boats and other marine sources. While many different types of trash enter the ocean, plastics make up the majority of marine debris for two reasons. First, plastic’s durability, low cost, and malleability mean that it’s being used in more and more consumer and industrial products. Second, plastic goods do not biodegrade but instead, break down into smaller pieces. In the ocean, the sun breaks down these plastics into tinier and tinier pieces, a process known as photodegradation. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups. When plastic waste floats in the ocean, sun, waves, marine life and more will break the plastic down into smaller and smaller pieces. Large plastic objects will after a while turn into trillions of smaller microplastics. When plastic becomes this small, it becomes almost impossible to remove . Microplastics can be found everywhere in the ocean: from the ocean’s surface and all the way down to the ocean floor. These small plastics cause harm to marine animals because they mistake it for food, and cause problems for human life because our food gets contaminated with toxins from the plastic. Credit: Brut.