What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and why are environmentalists racing to clean it up
A study shows that species are living and reproducing on the plastic, which could reshape marine ecosystems.
Scientists say the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now so large and so permanent that a new coastal ecosystem is thriving on it.
At twice the size of Texas, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is continuing to grow, posing as a serious threat to the environment and ocean life.
According to The Ocean Cleanup, an organization leading cleanup efforts, the garbage patch is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world. Located between California and Hawaii, it is the largest of five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world's oceans.
The mass of the floating plastic has been estimated to be about 100,000 tons, which is higher than previous calculations. At the time of sampling, The Ocean Cleanup estimated more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic were in the patch.
Dr. Britta Baechler, Ocean Conservancy’s Director of Plastics Research, explained the significance of the GPGP's role regarding plastic pollution.
“The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one symptom of a much larger crisis," Dr. Baechler told AccuWeather in an email. "More than a garbage truck’s worth of plastics enters the ocean every minute, and while a relatively small percentage of it is concentrated in the garbage patch, the reality is that this pollution is everywhere."
How garbage patches form
According to NASA, about 8 million tons of plastic flows from beaches and rivers into the ocean each year. The plastic is broken down by waves and the sun into microplastics, which then float at the calm center of circular ocean currents called gyres in large garbage patches.
Over time, garbage patches have developed in each of the ocean’s basins, which are shown in maps curated by NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.
Satellite data collected from University of Michigan researchers also revealed microplastic concentrations in the GPGP are higher in the summer and lower in the winter. This seasonal variation was also spotted in other gyres, due to more vertical mixing during cooler temperatures.
Mega Expedition mothership; R/V Ocean Starr crew pulling a ghost net from the Pacific Ocean, 2015. (The Ocean Cleanup)
Impact on ocean life
The GPGP contains tens of thousands of tons of plastic pieces that have become an artificial shoreline, explained Earth.com. A 2023 Nature Ecology & Evolution study discovered a variety of creatures, mostly invertebrates, have been living on the plastic.
The study also found 80 percent of the diversity came from coastal organisms who showed evidence of reproducing. This finding suggests these organisms can spend their life cycles on these trash clusters and are potentially forming more permanent communities, which may affect marine ecosystems.
However, the GPGP remains a threat to other types of marine life. According to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), ocean debris can easily be ingested by marine species who mistake it for food, which can cause choking and starvation.
Marine life can also become entangled in abandoned fishing nets, per The Ocean Cleanup. These discarded nets, also known as "ghost nets," account for 46% of the GPGP mass.
Abandoned nets, ropes and other plastic garbage are pulled out of the ocean at the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), located halfway between Hawaii and California. (Handout/The Ocean Cleanup/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Growth concerns
In 2018, the GPGP was more than 600,000 square miles, which is twice the size of Texas or three times the size of France, per a Scientific Reports study.
According to NOAA, since much of the debris is made of microplastics not immediately evident to the naked eye, it is difficult to determine the GPGP's exact size, especially since the trash is always moving from winds and ocean currents. The constant motion also makes microplastics difficult to remove, meaning it may not be possible to completely eradicate garbage patches.
The Ocean Cleanup said that as more plastics are discarded into the environment, microplastic concentration in the GPGP will only continue to increase, impeding the ocean's ability to help regulate the climate.
Cleanup efforts
According to a collaborative study between The Ocean Cleanup and independent scientists, the benefits of cleaning up the GPGP outweigh the environmental costs, such as ecosystem disruptions and greenhouse gas emissions. The study found that marine life is more vulnerable to plastic pollution than offshore cleanup efforts.
The Ocean Conservancy is also working to remove trash from beaches and waterways, running "the world’s biggest volunteer cleanup initiative, the International Coastal Cleanup," noted Baechler.
“The science is clear," Dr. Baechler said. "To address the plastic pollution crisis, like what is found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, we need to reduce plastic production, manage plastic waste better and clean up plastic already in the environment."
Report a Typo
