The more you know, the more you grow....

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Eastern Garbage Patch or the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135° to 155°W and 35° to 42°N and estimated to be twice the size of Texas. The patch is characterized by exceptionally high concentrations of suspended plastic and other debris that have been trapped by the currents of the North Pacific Gyre. Despite its size and density, the patch is not visible from satellite photography because it consists of very, very small pieces, almost invisible to the naked eye and most of its contents are suspended beneath the surface of the ocean.

Anyways, on CNN the North Pacific Gyre and also the Pacific Garbage Patch are two times the size of Maryland.

Project Kaisei who has been to the area 30 years go, today calls it a 'dump'. "The pieces of plastic that gets broken down get ingested by sea birds, marine animals and fish" she told CNN.

The project hopes to return in 2010 to find more folutions as the Gyre sadly keeps on growing.... hopefully a solution will be found.

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Mer wrote on November 05, 2009

Title: ... The only real solution is to stop trash from getting into the ocean. Even if some way of collecting the plastics and whatnot that are out there is found, it's all for nothing if people keep tossing their trash into the environment. There is a blog about this issue with entertaining posts (especially for government workers). Check it out! http://marinedebrisgov.blogspot.com/ report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0