'"So on the way back to our home port in Long Beach, California, we decided to take a shortcut through the gyre, which few seafarers ever cross. Fishermen shun it because its waters lack the nutrients to support an abundant catch. Sailors dodge it because it lacks the wind to propel their sailboats. Yet as I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean, I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic. It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments. Months later, after I discussed what I had seen with the oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, perhaps the world's leading expert on flotsam, he began referring to the area as the 'eastern garbage patch.'"
Capt. Charles Moore, discoverer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, in an article for Natural History magazine in 2003
The preceding was an except from the National Geographic article, entitled: Great Pacific Garbage Patch.[10]
So, you are awoken in the morning by the alarm on your plastic clock; you go to the kitchen and remove a slice of bread from a plastic wrapper for toast; you butter it with margarine from a plastic tub; you take a shower and wash yourself with various soaps from plastic bottles; you brush your teeth with a plastic toothbrush using toothpaste squeezed from a plastic tube; you place the various items for your lunch into plastic bags; and grab that plastic bottle of water (the one from the case you wouldn't normally have bought – but come on – 24 bottles for $1.99, that’s virtually free).
Lunch comes and it turns out everyone’s headed out for fast-food, so you forgo your packed lunch and grab a sub, and remove it from its plastic bag, and drink your soda through a plastic straw … and … well, this could go on forever. The point is, plastic has become as much a part of our every days lives as the water we drink and the air we breathe.
***
Since its mass production began to soar after, or rather, between the First and Second World Wars, plastic has integrated itself into our lives like virtually no other man made material. Just take a walk through your local grocery store, and have a gander at all the plastic packaging. It has become so integrated into our lives that the idea of its consumption actually modifying the vast oceanic ecosystems is almost too remote a notion to contemplate.
And if plastic has ended up in the world's Oceans, and if ecosystems are indeed being disrupted, well surely we aren't responsible for it, right? It must be the generations that came before us. I mean, we recycle, right?
***
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is a gyre of marine debris particles in the central North Pacific Ocean.[1][26]
(A similar patch of floating plastic debris is found in the Atlantic Ocean.)[2][3][26]
It is thought that, like other areas of concentrated marine debris in the world's oceans, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch formed gradually as a result of ocean or marine pollution gathered by oceanic currents.[4][26]
Most debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the surface, making it impossible to detect by aircraft or satellite. Instead, the size of the patch is determined by sampling.[11][26]
According to a 2011 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report:
"The primary source of marine debris is the improper waste disposal or management of trash and manufacturing products, including plastics (e.g., littering, illegal dumping) ... Debris is generated on land at marinas, ports, rivers, harbors, docks, and storm drains. Debris is generated at sea from fishing vessels, stationary platforms and cargo ships."[5][26]
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Pollutants range in size from abandoned fishing nets to micro-pellets used in abrasive cleaners.[6][26]
Currents carry debris from the west coast of North America to the Gyre in about six years,[7][26] and debris from the east coast of Asia in a year or less.[8][9][26]
***
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of several oceanic regions where researchers have studied the effects and impact of plastic photo-degradation in the organisms that live at and just below surface layer of water.[15][26]
Unlike organic debris, which biodegrades, the photo-degraded plastic disintegrates into ever smaller pieces while remaining a polymer. This process continues down to the molecular level.[16][26]
As the plastic flotsam photo-degrades into smaller and smaller pieces, it concentrates in the upper water column. As it disintegrates, the plastic ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms that reside near the ocean's surface, thereby entering the food chain.[26]
Some of these long-lasting plastics end up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals, and their young,[17][18][19][26] including sea turtles and Albatrosses.
Of the 1.5 million Laysan Albatrosses that inhabit Midway, nearly all are found to have plastic in their digestive system.[20][26]
Approximately one-third of their chicks die, and many of those deaths are due to being fed plastic from their parents.[21][22][26]
Twenty tons of plastic debris washes up on Midway every year with five tons of that debris being fed to Albatross chicks.[23][26]
Besides the particles' danger to wildlife, on the microscopic level the floating debris can absorb organic pollutants from seawater, including PCBs, DDT, and PAHs.[24][26] Aside from toxic effects,[25][26] when ingested, some of these are mistaken by the endocrine system as estradiol, causing hormone disruption in the affected animal.[22][26]
These toxin-containing plastic pieces are also eaten by jellyfish, which are then eaten by larger fish. Many of these fish are then consumed by humans, resulting in their ingestion of toxic chemicals.[26]
Marine plastics also facilitate the spread of invasive species that attach to floating plastic in one region and drift long distances to colonize other ecosystems.[6][26]
On the macroscopic level, the physical size of the plastic kills fish, birds and turtles as the animals' digestion can not break down the plastic that is taking up space inside their stomachs.[25][26]
A second effect of the macroscopic plastic is to make it much more difficult for animals to detect their normal sources of food. While eating their normal source of food, plastic ingestion can be unavoidable.[26]
***
UPDATES / RELATED
Nearly Every Seabird on Earth Is Eating Plastic / newsnationalgeographic.com / September 2, 2015
Researcher finds microplastics in every sample of Great Lakes water / cbc.ca / July 17, 2015
What if everyone in the world recycled? / HOW STUFF WORKS / June 6, 2015
Here's how much plastic enters the ocean each year Science News / February 12, 2015
Nearly Every Seabird on Earth Is Eating Plastic / newsnationalgeographic.com / September 2, 2015
Researcher finds microplastics in every sample of Great Lakes water / cbc.ca / July 17, 2015
What if everyone in the world recycled? / HOW STUFF WORKS / June 6, 2015
Here's how much plastic enters the ocean each year Science News / February 12, 2015
REFERENCES
[1] Dautel, Susan L. "Transoceanic Trash: International and United States Strategies for the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," 3 Golden Gate U. Envtl. L.J. 181 (2009)
[2] Lovett, Richard A. (2 March 2010). "Huge Garbage Patch Found in Atlantic Too".National Geographic News. National Geographic Society.
[3] Victoria Gill (24 February 2010). "Plastic rubbish blights Atlantic Ocean". BBC. Retrieved 16 March 2010.
[4] David M. Karl, "A Sea of Change: Biogeochemical Variability in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre," Ecosystems, Vol. 2, No. 3 (May – Jun., 1999), pp. 181–214 (and, for gyres generally) Sverdrup HU, Johnson MW, Fleming RH. 1946. The oceans, their physics, chemistry and general biology. New York: Prentice-Hall.
[5] Marine Debris in the North Pacific (2011)
[6] Ferris, David (May–June 2009). "Message in a bottle". Sierra (San Francisco: Sierra Club). Retrieved 13 August 2009.
[7] http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm
[8] Faris, J. and Hart, K. (1994). "Seas of Debris: A Summary of the Third International Conference on Marine Debris". N.C. Sea Grant College Program and NOAA.
[9] "Garbage Mass Is Growing in the Pacific". National Public Radio. 28 March 2008.
[10] http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1
[11] Marks, Kathy (5 February 2008). "The world's rubbish dump". The Independent(London). Retrieved 4 May 2010.
[12] Young, Lindsay C.; Vanderlip, Cynthia; Duffy, David C.; Afanasyev, Vsevolod; Shaffer, Scott A. (2009). Ropert-Coudert, Yan, ed. "Bringing Home the Trash: Do Colony-Based Differences in Foraging Distribution Lead to Increased Plastic Ingestion in Laysan Albatrosses?". PLoS ONE 4 (10): e7623. Bibcode:2009PLoSO...4.7623Y.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007623. PMC 2762601. PMID 19862322.
[13] Thompson, R. C.; Olsen, Y; Mitchell, RP; Davis, A; Rowland, SJ; John, AW; McGonigle, D; Russell, AE (2004). "Lost at Sea: Where is All the Plastic?". Science 304 (5672): 838.doi:10.1126/science.1094559. PMID 15131299.
[14] Barnes, D. K. A.; Galgani, F.; Thompson, R. C.; Barlaz, M. (2009). "Accumulation and fragmentation of plastic debris in global environments". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 364 (1526): 1985–98. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0205.JSTOR 40485977. PMC 2873009. PMID 19528051.
[15] Barry, Carolyn (20 August 2009). "Plastic Breaks Down in Ocean, After All – And Fast".National Geographic News. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 30 August 2009. [16] Moore, Charles (November 2003). "Across the Pacific Ocean, plastics, plastics, everywhere". Natural History Magazine.
[17] "Beached whale in Spain dies from ingesting plastic waste" Agence France-Presse March 7, 2013
[18] Chris Jordan (November 11, 2009). "Midway: Message from the Gyre". Retrieved2009-11-13.
[19] "Q&A: Your Midway questions answered". BBC News. March 28, 2008. RetrievedApril 5, 2010.
[20] Moore, Charles (2 October 2002). "Great Pacific Garbage Patch". Santa Barbara News-Press.
[21] Plastic-Filled Albatrosses Are Pollution Canaries in New Doc. Wired. June 29, 2012. Accessed 6-11-13
[22] Rios, Lorena M.; Moore, Charles; Jones, Patrick R. (2007). "Persistent organic pollutants carried by synthetic polymers in the ocean environment". Marine Pollution Bulletin 54 (8): 1230–7. doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2007.03.022. PMID 17532349.
[23] Tanabe, Shinsuke; Watanabe, Mafumi; Minh, Tu Binh; Kunisue, Tatsuya; Nakanishi, Shigeyuki; Ono, Hitoshi; Tanaka, Hiroyuki (2004). "PCDDs, PCDFs, and Coplanar PCBs in Albatross from the North Pacific and Southern Oceans: Levels, Patterns, and Toxicological Implications". Environmental Science & Technology 38 (2): 403–13.Bibcode:2004EnST...38..403T. doi:10.1021/es034966x. PMID 14750714.
[24] Rogers, Paul. "'Pacific Garbage Patch' expedition finds plastic, plastic everywhere." The Contra Costa Times [Walnut Creek, CA] 1 Sep 2009: n. pag. Web. 4 Oct 2009.
[25] "Rubber worm ingestion study" "lost significant weight during the study" Page 3
[26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/quarter-million-tons-of-plastic-plague-oceans/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D41rO7mL6zMar http://news.sciencemag.org/environment/2014/12/how-much-plastic-there-ocean
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_debris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic
http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/planet-2/report/2007/8/plastic_ocean_report.pdf
http://www.oceanvoyagesinstitute.org/
IMAGE CREDITS
IMAGE CREDITS
"Plastic household items" by ImGz - Own work. Licensed under GFDL via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Plastic_household_items.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Plastic_household_items.jpg
"Pollution swan". Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pollution_swan.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Pollution_swan.jpg
"North Pacific Gyre World Map" by Fangz (talk) - Fangz created this work entirely by himself in Photoshop, using materials in the public domain.. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_Pacific_Gyre_World_Map.png#mediaviewer/File:North_Pacific_Gyre_World_Map.png
"Marine debris on Hawaiian coast" by NOAA - http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/marinedebris101/photos_ecosys.html. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marine_debris_on_Hawaiian_coast.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Marine_debris_on_Hawaiian_coast.jpg
"Turtle entangled in marine debris (ghost net)" by This file is lacking author information. - Source of the image: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2429.htm. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turtle_entangled_in_marine_debris_(ghost_net).jpg#mediaviewer/File:Turtle_entangled_in_marine_debris_(ghost_net).jpg
"Marine debris on Hawaiian coast" by NOAA - http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/marinedebris101/photos_ecosys.html. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marine_debris_on_Hawaiian_coast.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Marine_debris_on_Hawaiian_coast.jpg
"Turtle entangled in marine debris (ghost net)" by This file is lacking author information. - Source of the image: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/s2429.htm. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turtle_entangled_in_marine_debris_(ghost_net).jpg#mediaviewer/File:Turtle_entangled_in_marine_debris_(ghost_net).jpg
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