365 Days of Climate Awareness 119 – The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

 

As with the posts on eutrophication (49) and peak oil (88), this topic doesn’t pertain to global warming, but it deserves attention. Over the past three decades awareness has grown of a large floating patch of plastic in the north Pacific ocean, gathered and kept in the region by the North Pacific Gyre, so that plastic continues to accumulate, and slowly decompose into a soupy almalgam with the water, which inhibits the transfer of oxygen into the water and so harms fish and plankton. But though the Pacific patch has received the most attention, two more, in the South Pacific and North Atlantic, also exist. Evidence of concentrations of plastic in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans has also been found.

The Pacific Garbage Patch(es).

The Pacific patch itself exists in two concentrations, one on the eastern edge of the gyre closer to California, the other on the western edge, nearer to Japan. The action of the winds and the rotating surface current keep the floating plastics trapped within the gyre.

Other collections of garbage in ocean gyres.

There is a misconception with the term “garbage patch”, matching the sensationalistic photos, of this massive sprawl of floating trash, like an oceanic landfill, extending hundreds of miles. The plastics are largely too small to see—microplastics, such as the tiny beads in cosmetic products—and tend to float beneath the ocean surface, so passing through the area on a ship, you might not notice anything.

Not...quite what we're talking about. (Still very gross, though.)

There are larger pieces, but but not the floor-like surface of floating trash shown in many pictures. Though microplastics make up 94% of the estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the Pacific patch, they make up only 8% of the mass, the other 92% being discarded fishing gear such as buoys and nets. The estimated density of plastic in the patch is 200,000 pieces/km², or one piece per 5 m².

The soupy amalgam inhibits the transfer of oxygen into the water, lowering the ocean’s viability for plankton and fish. The larger pieces entangle fish and other animals, and some try to eat it, thinking it is food. Many birds and fish simply ingest the microparticles by accident while hunting for larger prey.

Tomorrow: global weirding and extreme weather events.

Be brave, and be well.