This blog was created to share some basic knowledge of the North Pacific Gyre. We are also sharing some idea's on how we can fix it. Our main concern is how people need to worry about post consumer safety of products just as much as consumer safety. We hope you guys enjoy it and take steps to help keep our world's oceans clean! Thank you for viewing and reading.
The picture above depicts the ocean's circular current where the North Pacific gyre is. The circular motion keeps the garbage in the center of the gyre where it is typically calm and stable. The red convergence zone is where the most trash resides. Please remember that all the trash in the garbage patch is not visible to the naked eye, because many are microplastics. There are currently 5 major gyres on Earth. There is the Indian Ocean Gyre, North Atlantic Gyre, North Pacific Gyre, South Atlantic Gyre, and the South Pacific Gyre. We need to not only worry about the one West of the United States but all over the world! We need to take little steps, one by one, to fixing all the gyres and keeping our ocean's trash and plastic free!
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located halfway between the United States west coast and Japan. This floating bunch of plastic is twice the size of Texas and is still expanding. Some may be confused on how a garbage patch this big is formed. The patch is formed by certain currents in the ocean called gyres. A gyre is a current system that pulls water from one place in the ocean and moves it somewhere else. A lot of trash has entered the patch including rope and nets, but the biggest contributor to the patch is plastic. All kinds of plastic get caught in the garbage patch, from plastic bags to plastic beverage rings. Some of these plastics stay whole, but others break down forming micro plastics. Micro plastics are naked to the human eye, but have a major negative impact on Marine Life. This harms marine life for the following reasons:
Animals mistake plastic for food and digest it, ultimately leading the animal to its death. Below are two photographs of consequences of plastic debris in the ocean. The first is a picture of plastic bags that resemble jellyfish. Turtles eat jellyfish and mistake the plastic bags for their food, which leads to the turtle's death. The second photo is of a gull that died from a stomach full of miscellaneous plastics. Also, on another note fish digest this trash that can potentially be toxic and then this fish can eventually be on the table in front of us as dinner. Does anyone really want poisoned fish for dinner?
Animals get physically caught in the trash, leading to the inability to move freely and in more severe conditions death. Trapped animals cannot search for food or escape predators. Below is a seal that has been caught in rope and is unable to move. There is also a photograph of a dead gull that died due to the plastic soda rings caught around its neck.
Micro plastics float on the top of the water which prevents sunlight from reaching certain organisms such as plankton and algae. With autotrophs not getting there necessary nutrients, animals who eat the algae and plankton will suffer causing the whole food web to suffer as well. Here is a sample water taken from the North Pacific Gyre. By looking at the picture, you can tell how little some of the plastics can be. In a body of water as large as the ocean, it can be very hard to find and confiscate the plastic.
It is hard to find a solution to the Garbage Patch due to so many organisms that reside in the water. People are resistant to using nets, because organisms as small as zooplankton or 1/3 of a millimeter can get caught in the nets. A big idea is not to harm more marine life and their habitat while trying to clean the ocean.
The ocean is connected to us in every way. As we mentioned earlier, marine life is a food source for us. By polluting the ocean with plastic we are poisoning ourselves while also messing up the ocean's food web, also mentioned earlier. It's is our job to preserve the environment and oceans for many more years to come since we are the ones who are slowly destroying it.
Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao are two young scientists who figured out a way to break down plastic with bacteria by accident while in twelfth grade. It shows no matter how old, you can make a change!
Akinori Ito is the creator of a small machine that converts
plastic into oil. If you purify the oil it can be used as gasoline, diesel, and
kerosene. This is the kind of creation that could change the world, it is small
enough that people could have them in their houses. Unfortunately, this came
out in 2010 and since then there has been nothing in news about it. This makes
me think of the worst, and believe that someone bought it so it would never be
capable of changing the world for the better.
There are a few simple things we can do to prevent our oceans from becoming more polluted.
Use as little plastic as possible
Use reusable water bottles instead of buying plastic ones everyday.
If you have the choice, use paper bags at the grocery store instead of plastic. Or even better bring your own from home!
Attend beach clean ups in your community or take it upon yourself to go to the beach and pick up trash.
If you see any trash in town or on the ground, pick it up!
Recycle everything you possibly can!
We have the power to change this now! If you take little steps it will help, it might take a long time but it will be effective.
The AMRI also holds a yearly Plastic Ocean Pollution Solutions youth summit, where selected kids under 18 get the chance to go to a 2 day training to be the solution to plastic ocean pollution. Any kids can send in their solution to this link- http://2014.algalitayouthsummit.org/. This is a great way to be recognized if you believe you have the best, most efficient way to solve the plastic epidemic in our world's oceans!
If you donate, your money would go to Charles Moore and his foundation Algalita Marine Research Institute (AMRI). AMRI has been a successful research institute for 20 years. Charles Moore founded the North Pacific Garbage Patch in 1997, while sailing from Hawaii to California. Since then, Charles Moore has made numerous research trips to the Garbage Patch.
