The Great Garbage Patch

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The Great Garbage Patch

• Earths Largest Landfill is floating in the
  Pacific Ocean
• Presented by Amy Carpenter
• Columbia Springs Environmental Education Outreach
  Program
• Student Environmental Leadership Forum 2009
• March 25, 2009

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North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

• A gyre is any manner of swirling vortex,
  particularly large-scale wind and ocean currents.
  
• Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect
• The North Pacific Gyre has a clockwise circular
  pattern
• An accumulation of
  man-made marine
  debris known as the
  "Great Pacific
  Garbage Patch"
  is collecting in
  the gyre.

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Current Pattern of the North Pacific Gyre
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Facts about the Gyre

• The circulation is slow
• The area is an Oceanic Desert, filled with
  phytoplankton but very few large fish or mammals
  inhabit the area
• Since there are few fish, there are also few
  fishermen sailors
• There are actually two areas of accumulating
  debris the Western Pacific Garbage Patch and
  the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch which sometimes
  join to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

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Charles Moore

• Founder of Algalita Marine Research Foundation in
  1994, Long Beach, California
• He is the lead author of two scientific papers
  published in Marine Pollution Bulletin
• 1. " A Comparison of Plastic and Plankton in
  the North Pacific Central Gyre". Article by C.J.
  Moore, S.L. Moore, M.K. Leecaster, and S.B.
  Weisberg, Algalita Marine Research Foundation and
  Southern California Coastal Water Research
  Project. Published in Marine Pollution Bulletin
  42 (2001) 12971300.
• 2. " A Comparison of Neustonic Plastic and
  Zooplankton Abundance in Southern Californias
  Coastal Waters". Article by C.J. Moore, S.L.
  Moore, S.B. Weisberg, G.L. Lattin, and A.F.
  Zellers Algalita Marine Research Foundation and
  Southern California Coastal Water Research
  Project. Published in Marine Pollution Bulletin
  44 (2002) 10351038
• Captain Moore has now done ocean and coastal
  sampling for plastic fragments over twenty
  thousand miles of the north Pacific ocean, across
  22 degrees of latitude and 50 degrees of
  longitude
• Video

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Garbage Patch Facts

• Plastics make up 90 of all floating trash in the
  worlds oceans
• The United Nations Environment Program estimated
  in 2006 that there were 46,000 pieces of plastic
  debris in every square mile
• The debris that accumulates is 80 from land and
  20 from ships, including the United States and
  Japan
• It is estimated that debris reaches the center of
  the patch from Asia within 5 years and from the
  US in a year or less.

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Eastern Garbage Patch

• Floats between Hawaii and California
• Twice as big as Texas
• Can be as deep as 30 meters

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The Trouble with Plastics in the Oceans

• Plastics in the oceans dont biodegrade like
  other debris
• They will break down over time into smaller and
  smaller pieces while still maintaining their
  chemical make-up
• As the pieces get smaller fish, mammals, birds
  and even plankton will consume the pieces which
  are not digestible
• While the plastics may not be visible to the eye,
  studies have shown that in some areas the
  concentration of plastics outnumbers the
  concentration of plankton by a ratio of 71

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• This Laysan Albatross chick has been accidentally
  fed plastic by its parents and died as a result.

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Whats the Solution?

• Organizations such as the Environmental Cleanup
  Coalition (ECC) have formed and are proposing to
  purchase large ships for removal
• Of the 200 billion pounds of plastic the world
  produces each year about 10 ends up in the
  oceans- in other word way to much to merely
  remove
• More recycling and tighter management of solid
  waste disposal
• Other ideas???

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For more information check out

• On Facebook
• Stop Trashing The Ocean The Great Garbage Patch
• Stop the Pacific Gyre Garbage Patch
• GIANT GARBAGE PATCH AWARENESS
• On MySpace
• Great Pacific Garbage Patch
• At VBS.TV
• Toxic Island series of videos (Caution strong
  language)

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Web Resources

• http//science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-gar
  bage-patch.htm
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pacific_Gyre
• http//www.gyrecleanup.org/
• http//www.treehugger.com/files/2008/02/great_paci
  fic_garbage_patch.php
• www.nasa.gov

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QUESTIONS COMMENTS
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Citations

• Moore, Charles Moore, S. L. Leecaster, M. K.
  Weisberg, S. B. (4), "A Comparison of Plastic and
  Plankton in the North Pacific Central Gyre"
  (PDF), Marine Pollution Bulletin 42 (12)
  12971300, 2001-12-01, doi10.1016/S0025-326X(01)0
  0114-X, http//www.alguita.com/gyre.pdf