The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

 

In 1997, returning to California from Hawaii after completing the annual Transpacific Yacht Race, oceanographer Charles J. Moore and his crew aboard the Alguita made a startling discovery. Veering off course in an isolated stretch of the Pacific Ocean to investigate, the sea captain found traces of civilization surrounding his vessel.

“Every time I came on deck to survey the horizon, I saw a soap bottle, bottle cap or a shard of plastic waste bobbing by,” relates Moore. “Here I was in the middle of the ocean and there was nowhere I could go to avoid the plastic.”

Captain Moore and the crew of the Alguita found themselves in what was later called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of plastics and other pollutants located within the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG), one of the most remote regions on Earth. Centered by the Hawaiian Islands, the NPSG is made up of four major ocean currents and by some estimates is roughly the size of Latin America, while the Garbage Patch has been estimated to be the size of Texas, residing in a slow-moving zone of accumulation. Because the currents that form the gyre flow along the highly populated coasts of the North Pacific, pollutants (usually in the form of plastics) are lifted from these areas and, over a period of several years, are transported thousands of miles to the middle of the ocean.

The length of time the pollutants spend at sea coupled with degradation caused by sunlight takes its toll on the physical composition of the inorganic debris, breaking it down to the point where it largely becomes invisible to the naked eye. Because of plastic’s unique molecular composition, its polymers act as a sponge to harmful biological toxins such as PCBs and DDT. Studies by researchers at Tokyo University have revealed that pelagic, or ocean surface, plastics can concentrate these poisons to up to a million times their concentration in the water as free-floating substances.

Because the plastic particles and other marine debris are pelagic, they collect near the surface of the water…just like the North Pacific’s abundance of plankton and other microorganisms. In a zooplankton trawling expedition to find just how polluted the surface of the Pacific Garbage Patch had become, Moore and his crew collected more plastic and garbage than they did organic life.

“It’s not hard to make the connection that fish are getting tangled up in this,” says Moore.

Indeed, marine life has been greatly affected by the Garbage Patch. Laysan Albatrosses, birds that are best known for their sustained flight periods high above the Pacific, have been regurgitating bottle caps and other debris to their chicks as they nest in the northern Hawaiian Islands. Jellyfish and other consumers of pelagic plastics poison themselves, and in turn, poison their predators.

At the end of a hauntingly poignant circle, humans end up consuming the fruits of their polluting.

This phenomenon regarding accumulated pollutants is not isolated to the North Pacific. Throughout the world’s ocean systems, gyres similar to the NPSG can be found in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Researchers are finding “plastic soups” comparable to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in these areas because of the proliferation of plastics in the world’s societies.

Unfortunately, cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and other marine pollution would adversely affect the delicate nature of ocean ecosystems. Plastics rest in the pelagic zones of oceans – extensive surface skimming and near-surface trawling would be monstrously expensive and would remove lower life forms such as plankton from the ecosystems, severely depleting the food source of countless marine organisms.

While Captain Moore has become one of the foremost experts on this global issue, his view on how to mitigate humankind’s environmental impact on the world’s oceans is to adopt a radical new approach to the way we live. He suggests abandoning the “throwaway culture” society has adhered to for the last half century – which includes the way we package foods – for more sustainable living.