The world’s largest garbage patch has been dubbed a “plastic soup” as scientists warn it has become twice as large as the continental US and is set to double in size within the next decade.
The vast expanse of debris is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting “soup” stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.
Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” or “trash vortex”, believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region.
The environmental impact of all this waste, 90% of which is plastic, is undetermined, but it can’t be good. Ultimately, if fish are ingesting plastic particulates (which are known to adversely effect their health) and we ingest the fish, then we could be storing up more trouble for ourselves.
According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.
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The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic,
What can we do about it? Well, 80% of this waste is thought to come from the land, so we can, at the very least be much more vigilant when it comes to litter. Or else, I can imagine going to the seaside when I am old and grey to see the trash breaking in waves upon the shore.