The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is chosen as an example to illustrate the intensity and damage that can be caused to marine life as many studies have been conducted on it.

Known otherwise as the pacific trash vortex, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the Northern Pacific Ocean. This large area of garbage patch is somewhat an accurate indication of the degree of plastic pollution in our oceans today because of the circular motion of ocean currents that draws oceanic debris to a stable center in the Pacific Ocean.

When the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is mentioned, the first image that comes to people’s minds is an island made entirely out of trash that we can walk on. However, that is a common misconception as the plastics are floating beneath the surface of the ocean as shown in the image below. Hence “plastic soup” is a clearer description of what to expect at the Garbage Patch. We would not be able to experience the enormous mass of trash in the ocean until we go into the oceans personally. The majority of the Garbage Patch comprises of plastics (some unseen by the naked eye) mainly because it is commonly used in vast consumer and industrial products and also because plastic is non-biodegradable; it simply breaks down into smaller pieces.

 

To learn more about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, watch the 2014 film below directed by Angela Sun.

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Next, impacts on seabirds.

Previously, impacts of plastics in oceans.