The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
by Daphne Stevens
For Ecology & Social Action Sunday, April 13, 2014
How many of you have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, raise your hands. Did you know that there are now 4 more?
While preparing for this sermon, I was fascinated to learn that this patch was predicted long before it happened by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
In 1988, scientists were monitoring the amount of trash being dumped into the ocean or along its beaches. There is a convergence that is located between California and Hawaii that creates ocean currents and winds called a gyre, a circular pattern of oceanic surface currents where items collect.
The date the trash island began to grow is unknown but by 1997, the patch was officially discovered by Captain Charles Moore who had competed in a sailing race. Sailing back after the race, he found debris everywhere. Charles Moore is now an oceanographer that “estimates there could be 200 million tons of plastic debris floating in the seas. This calculation is based on the belief that 2.5% of the world’s plastic lands in the ocean. According to the National Geographic magazine, scientists have gathered up to 750,000 bits of plastic in a square kilometer of that patch.
There is another plastic island in the Atlantic Ocean in the Sargasso Sea. Four currents carry a portion of the world’s trash to the middle of the Sea leaving it trapped there to continue to grow. In addition there are 3 other major tropical gyres, in the South Pacific, South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The exact sizes of these patches will never be known as they are constantly growing. Most is plastic but you will also find light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, some wood, coconuts and seeds.
Captain Moore studied the Pacific patch that he discovered learning that 90% is plastic. NOAA studied the Sargasso Sea patch also finding the same percentage of plastics. The other three gyres are in the South Pacific, South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.
Where is this plastic coming from? 80% is coming from land and the other 20% from transport ships that carry huge containers. In violent storms they may wash overboard. Current thinking is about 350 containers from ships land in the sea. Though others believe that there are many more. Do you remember reading or hearing about all the Nike sneakers in 5 containers that were washed overboard in 1990, eventually washing up on beaches? On January 10, 1992 twelve containers washed over in the North Pacific Ocean of which one was filled with bathtub toys: yellow ducks, red beavers, green frogs and blue turtles. The first plastic creatures washed up on Alaskan beaches November 1992. One scientist in particular, Curt Ebbermeyer, used these floating sneakers and toys to study ocean currents. The majority of this plastic though, is made up of BILLIONS of pounds of raw plastic pellets called nurdles, a byproduct of plastic manufacturing. Also there are the ubiquitous cups, bottles, caps, bags and fish netting creating a roiling soup.
These islands may well last forever as algae spreads over the plastic protecting it from the sun that can help it break down. The ocean is cooler than the land also making it harder for the plastic to disintegrate.
Wildlife, part of our independent web of life is impacted in many ways. Seabirds, whales that are mammals like us, and other creatures can be captured in nylon nets and six pack rings leading to a horrible death. Choking on balloons, straws and sandwich bags are problematic too. The brightly colored nurdles are attractive to fish, jellyfish and seabirds. Toxins from these undigested pellets will kill whoever eats them by poisoning and can magnify across the food chain like DDT.
Unfortunately, research conducted by Captain Moore and NOAA tells us that these patches will continue to grow but are too large to be removed. Also 93% of those plastic particles are about the size of a grain of rice or smaller. There is no way to clean up all those particles.
There are stricter rules in place. One notable group, the International Maritime Organization adopted measures to prohibit the disposal of plastics anywhere in the seas. We need better and stronger recycling and disposal policies and laws. We need plastic water bottles to disappear. You can help by cleaning up beaches, and rivers as they run to the sea and always dispose of plastic correctly.
Marcus Eriksen, the executive director of the 5 Gyres Institute says basically, “the world’s oceans are plasticized”.
by Daphne Stevens
For Ecology & Social Action Sunday, April 13, 2014
How many of you have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, raise your hands. Did you know that there are now 4 more?
While preparing for this sermon, I was fascinated to learn that this patch was predicted long before it happened by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
In 1988, scientists were monitoring the amount of trash being dumped into the ocean or along its beaches. There is a convergence that is located between California and Hawaii that creates ocean currents and winds called a gyre, a circular pattern of oceanic surface currents where items collect.
The date the trash island began to grow is unknown but by 1997, the patch was officially discovered by Captain Charles Moore who had competed in a sailing race. Sailing back after the race, he found debris everywhere. Charles Moore is now an oceanographer that “estimates there could be 200 million tons of plastic debris floating in the seas. This calculation is based on the belief that 2.5% of the world’s plastic lands in the ocean. According to the National Geographic magazine, scientists have gathered up to 750,000 bits of plastic in a square kilometer of that patch.
There is another plastic island in the Atlantic Ocean in the Sargasso Sea. Four currents carry a portion of the world’s trash to the middle of the Sea leaving it trapped there to continue to grow. In addition there are 3 other major tropical gyres, in the South Pacific, South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The exact sizes of these patches will never be known as they are constantly growing. Most is plastic but you will also find light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, some wood, coconuts and seeds.
Captain Moore studied the Pacific patch that he discovered learning that 90% is plastic. NOAA studied the Sargasso Sea patch also finding the same percentage of plastics. The other three gyres are in the South Pacific, South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.
Where is this plastic coming from? 80% is coming from land and the other 20% from transport ships that carry huge containers. In violent storms they may wash overboard. Current thinking is about 350 containers from ships land in the sea. Though others believe that there are many more. Do you remember reading or hearing about all the Nike sneakers in 5 containers that were washed overboard in 1990, eventually washing up on beaches? On January 10, 1992 twelve containers washed over in the North Pacific Ocean of which one was filled with bathtub toys: yellow ducks, red beavers, green frogs and blue turtles. The first plastic creatures washed up on Alaskan beaches November 1992. One scientist in particular, Curt Ebbermeyer, used these floating sneakers and toys to study ocean currents. The majority of this plastic though, is made up of BILLIONS of pounds of raw plastic pellets called nurdles, a byproduct of plastic manufacturing. Also there are the ubiquitous cups, bottles, caps, bags and fish netting creating a roiling soup.
These islands may well last forever as algae spreads over the plastic protecting it from the sun that can help it break down. The ocean is cooler than the land also making it harder for the plastic to disintegrate.
Wildlife, part of our independent web of life is impacted in many ways. Seabirds, whales that are mammals like us, and other creatures can be captured in nylon nets and six pack rings leading to a horrible death. Choking on balloons, straws and sandwich bags are problematic too. The brightly colored nurdles are attractive to fish, jellyfish and seabirds. Toxins from these undigested pellets will kill whoever eats them by poisoning and can magnify across the food chain like DDT.
Unfortunately, research conducted by Captain Moore and NOAA tells us that these patches will continue to grow but are too large to be removed. Also 93% of those plastic particles are about the size of a grain of rice or smaller. There is no way to clean up all those particles.
There are stricter rules in place. One notable group, the International Maritime Organization adopted measures to prohibit the disposal of plastics anywhere in the seas. We need better and stronger recycling and disposal policies and laws. We need plastic water bottles to disappear. You can help by cleaning up beaches, and rivers as they run to the sea and always dispose of plastic correctly.
Marcus Eriksen, the executive director of the 5 Gyres Institute says basically, “the world’s oceans are plasticized”.
