Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a garbage patch, a gyre of marine debris particles, in the central North Pacific Ocean. It is located roughly from 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N. The collection of plastic and floating trash originates from the Pacific Rim, including countries in Asia, North America, and South America.
Despite the common public perception of the patch existing as giant islands of floating garbage, its low density prevents detection by satellite imagery, or even by casual boaters or divers in the area. This is because the patch is a widely dispersed area consisting primarily of suspended "fingernail-sized or smaller"—often microscopic—particles in the upper water column known as microplastics.
Researchers from the Ocean Cleanup project claimed that the patch covers consisting of of plastic as of 2018, later growing to twice the size of Texas. By the end of 2024, the Ocean Cleanup had removed more than one million pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or 0.5% of the total accumulated trash. While microplastics dominate the area by count, 92% of the mass of the patch consists of larger objects. Some of the plastic is over 50 years old, and includes items such as "plastic lighters, toothbrushes, water bottles, pens, baby bottles, cell phones, plastic bags, and nurdles".
Research indicates that the patch is rapidly accumulating. The patch is believed to have increased "10-fold each decade" since 1945. The gyre contains approximately six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton. A similar patch of floating plastic debris is found in the Atlantic Ocean, called the North Atlantic garbage patch.
History
The patch was predicted in a 1988 paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The description was based on research by several Alaska-based researchers in 1988 who measured neustonic plastic in the North Pacific Ocean.Researchers found relatively high concentrations of marine debris accumulating in regions governed by ocean currents. Extrapolating from findings in the Sea of Japan, the researchers hypothesized that similar conditions would occur in other parts of the Pacific where prevailing currents were favorable to the creation of relatively stable waters. They specifically indicated the North Pacific Gyre.
Charles J. Moore, returning home through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpacific Yacht Race in 1997, claimed to have come upon an enormous stretch of floating debris. Moore alerted the oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who subsequently dubbed the region the "Eastern Garbage Patch". The area is frequently featured in media reports as an exceptional example of marine pollution.
The JUNK Raft Project was a 2008 trans-Pacific sailing voyage made to highlight the plastic in the patch, organized by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
In 2009, two project vessels from Project Kaisei/Ocean Voyages Institute, the New Horizon and the Kaisei, embarked on a voyage to research the patch and determine the feasibility of commercial scale collection and recycling. The Scripps Institute of Oceanography's 2009 SEAPLEX expedition in part funded by Ocean Voyages Institute/Project Kaisei also researched the patch. Researchers were also looking at the impact of plastic on mesopelagic fish, such as lanternfish.
In 2010, Ocean Voyages Institute conducted a 30-day expedition in the gyre which continued the science from the 2009 expeditions and tested prototype cleanup devices.
In July/August 2012 Ocean Voyages Institute conducted a voyage from San Francisco to the Eastern limits of the North Pacific Gyre north, and then made a return voyage which also visited the Gyre. The focus on this expedition was surveying the extent of tsunami debris from the Japanese earthquake-tsunami.
Constitution
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch formed gradually as a result of ocean or marine pollution gathered by ocean currents. It occupies a relatively stationary region of the North Pacific Ocean bounded by the North Pacific Gyre in the horse latitudes. The gyre's rotational pattern draws in waste material from across the North Pacific, incorporating coastal waters off North America and Japan. As the material is captured in the currents, wind-driven surface currents gradually move debris toward the center, trapping it.In a 2014 study researchers sampled 1571 locations throughout the world's oceans and determined that discarded fishing gear such as buoys, lines and nets accounted for more than 60% of the mass of plastic marine debris. According to a 2011 EPA report, "The primary source of marine debris is the improper waste disposal or management of trash and manufacturing products, including plastics ... Debris is generated on land at marinas, ports, rivers, harbors, docks, and storm drains. Debris is generated at sea from fishing vessels, stationary platforms, and cargo ships." Constituents range in size from miles-long abandoned fishing nets to micro-pellets used in cosmetics and abrasive cleaners.
A computer model predicts that a hypothetical piece of debris from the U.S. west coast would head for Asia, and return to the U.S. in six years; debris from the east coast of Asia would reach the U.S. in a year or less. While microplastics make up 94% of the estimated 1.8 trillion plastic pieces, they amount to only 8% of the of plastic there, with most of the rest coming from the fishing industry.
A 2017 study concluded that of the of plastic produced since 1950, close to are no longer in use. The authors estimate that 9% was recycled, 12% was incinerated, and the remaining are in the oceans and land.
Animals
In a 2021 study, researchers who examined plastic from the patch identified more than 40 animal species on 90 percent of the debris they studied. Discovery of a thriving ecosystem of life at the Great Pacific garbage patch in 2022 suggested that cleaning up garbage here may adversely remove this plastisphere.A 2023 study found that the plastic is home to coastal species surviving in the open ocean and reproducing. These coastal species, including jellyfish and sponges, are commonly found in the western Pacific coast and are surviving alongside open-ocean species on the plastic. Some scientists are concerned that this mix of coastal and open-ocean species may result in unnatural or "neopelagic communities," in which coastal creatures could be competing with or even consuming open-ocean species.
Size estimates
The size of the patch is indefinite, as is the precise distribution of debris because large items are uncommon. Most debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the surface, evading detection by aircraft or satellite. Instead, the size of the patch is determined by sampling. The estimated size of the garbage patch is . Such estimates, however, are conjectural given the complexities of sampling and the need to assess findings against other areas. Further, although the size of the patch is determined by a higher-than-normal degree of concentration of pelagic debris, there is no standard for determining the boundary between "normal" and "elevated" levels of pollutants to provide a firm estimate of the affected area.In August 2009, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography/Project Kaisei SEAPLEX survey mission of the Gyre found that plastic debris was present in 100 consecutive samples taken at varying depths and net sizes along a path of through the patch. The survey found that, although the patch contains large pieces, it is on the whole made up of smaller items that increase in concentration toward the gyre's centre, and these 'confetti-like' pieces that are visible just beneath the surface suggests the affected area may be much smaller. Data collected in 2009 from Pacific albatross populations suggest the presence of two distinct debris zones.
In March 2018, the Ocean Cleanup published a paper summarizing their findings from the Mega- and Aerial Expedition. In 2015, the organization crossed the Great Pacific garbage patch with 30 vessels, to make observations and take samples with 652 survey nets. They collected a total of 1.2 million pieces, which they counted and categorized into their respective size classes. In order to also account for the larger, but more rare debris, they also overflew the patch in 2016 with a C-130 Hercules aircraft, equipped with LiDAR sensors. The findings from the two expeditions, found that the patch covers with a concentration of. They estimate an in the patch, with 1.8 trillion plastic pieces, out of which 92% of the mass is to be found in objects larger than.
NOAA stated:
Further contrary to popular belief, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch cannot be seen from space. In a 2001 study, researchers found concentrations of plastic particles at with a mean mass of, in the neuston. The overall concentration of plastics was seven times greater than the concentration of zooplankton in many of the sampled areas. Samples collected deeper in the water column found much lower concentrations of plastic particles. In 2012, researchers Goldstein, Rosenberg and Cheng found that microplastic concentrations in the gyre had increased by two orders of magnitude in the prior four decades.
On 11 April 2013, artist Maria Cristina Finucci founded The Garbage Patch State at UNESCO – Paris in front of Director General Irina Bokova. In March 2018, New Scientist published the prediction that the size was approximately 1.6 million square kilometers.
Environmental effects
In 2010, a conference at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers argued that whilst the patch posed a threat to the living conditions of mankind, it was controllable. In a conference at the IEEE in the following year, it was argued that the patch disrupts the balance of the original marine ecosystem and provides microorganisms with new biological conditions, leading to the development of a new ecosystem.Debris removal efforts
Ocean Voyages Institute's Project Kaisei
In 2009, Ocean Voyages Institute removed over of plastic during the initial Project Kaisei cleanup initiative while testing a variety of cleanup prototype devices. In 2019, over a 25-day expedition, Ocean Voyages Institute set the record for largest cleanup in the garbage patch, removing over of plastic from the ocean. In 2020, over the course of two expeditions, Ocean Voyages Institute again set the record for the largest cleanup removing of plastic from the ocean. The first 45-day expedition removed of plastic and the second expedition removed of plastic from the garbage patch. In 2022, over the course of 2 summer expeditions, Ocean Voyages Institute removed of plastic ghostnets, consumer items and mixed plastic debris from the garbage patch.The Ocean Cleanup
On 9 September 2018, the first collection system was deployed to the gyre to begin the collection task. This initial trial run of the Ocean Cleanup Project started towing its "Ocean Cleanup System 001" from San Francisco to a trial site some away. The initial trial of the "Ocean Cleanup System 001" ran for four months and provided the research team with valuable information relevant to the designing of the "System 001/B".In 2021, the Ocean Cleanup collected of plastic using their "System 002". The mission started in July 2021 and concluded on 14 October 2021. In July 2022, the Ocean Cleanup announced that they had reached a milestone of removing the first of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch using "System 002" and announced its transition to "System 03", which is claimed to be 10 times as effective as its predecessor. In April 2024, they celebrated a milestone of 10 million kg of trash extracted and just 7 months later, they have reached 20 million kg of trash removed.