The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one. Although a study by the National Science Foundation. Download free National Science Foundation Pacific Garbage Patch. The National Science Foundation. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. SEAPLEX researchers spotted a large net tangled with plastic in the 'garbage patch.' Skip to main content. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a massive dump of floating garbage in the Pacific Ocean. National Science Foundation 49,729 views. Great Pacific garbage patch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The area of increased plastic particles is located within the North Pacific Gyre, one of the five major oceanic gyres. It is located roughly between 1. It consists primarily of a small increase in suspended, often microscopic, particles in the upper water column. Discovery. The description was based on results obtained by several Alaska- based researchers between 1. North Pacific Ocean. 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. Moore, returning home through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpac sailing race in 1. Moore alerted the oceanographer. Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who subsequently dubbed the region the . The gyre's rotational pattern draws in waste material from across the North Pacific Ocean, including coastal waters off North America and Japan. As material is captured in the currents, wind- driven surface currents gradually move floating debris toward the center, trapping it in the region. Great Pacific Garbage Patch Awareness. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.Scientists Find 'Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch' Discover extensive plastic debris floating 1,000 miles from land. The National Science Foundation. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch explained. How does ocean debris move around the Pacific Ocean? Video from the National Science Foundation. There is no strong scientific data concerning the origins of pelagic plastics. The figure that an estimated 8. 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. Most debris consists of small plastic particles suspended at or just below the surface, making it impossible to detect by aircraft or satellite. Instead, the size of the patch is determined by sampling. Estimates of size range from 7. Texas) to more than 1. Pacific Ocean), or, in some media reports, up to . 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 . The plastic debris sampled is determined by net mesh size, with similar mesh sizes required to make meaningful comparisons among studies. Floating debris typically is sampled with a neuston or manta trawl net lined with 0. Given the very high level of spatial clumping in marine litter, large numbers of net tows are required to adequately characterize the average abundance of litter at sea. Long- term changes in plastic meso- litter have been reported using surface net tows: in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in 1. Similar dramatic increases in plastic debris have been reported off Japan. However, caution is needed in interpreting such findings, because of the problems of extreme spatial heterogeneity, and the need to compare samples from equivalent water masses, which is to say that, if an examination of the same parcel of water a week apart is conducted, an order of magnitude change in plastic concentration could be observed. The survey also confirmed that, although the debris field does contain 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 are clearly visible just beneath the surface. Although many media and advocacy reports have suggested that the patch extends over an area larger than the continental U. S., recent research sponsored by the National Science Foundation suggests the affected area may be much smaller. As a result, it is one of several oceanic regions where researchers have studied the effects and impact of plastic photodegradation in the neustonic layer of water. This process continues down to the molecular level. As it disintegrates, the plastic ultimately becomes small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms that reside near the ocean's surface. In this way, plastic may become concentrated in neuston, thereby entering the food chain. Some plastics decompose within a year of entering the water, leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A, PCBs, and derivatives of polystyrene. In a 2. 00. 1 study, researchers (including Charles Moore) found concentrations of plastic particles at 3. Assuming each particle of plastic averaged 5 mm . Nonetheless, this represents a very high amount with respect to the overall ecology of the neuston. In many of the sampled areas, the overall concentration of plastics was seven times greater than the concentration of zooplankton. Samples collected at deeper points in the water column found much lower concentrations of plastic particles (primarily monofilament fishing line pieces). Midway Atoll receives substantial amounts of marine debris from the patch. Of the 1. 5 million Laysan albatrosses that inhabit Midway, nearly all are found to have plastic in their digestive system. ECC collaborates with other groups to identify methods to safely remove plastic and persistent organic pollutants from the oceans. In August 2. 00. 9, two project vessels, the New Horizon and the Kaisei, embarked on a voyage to research the patch and determine the feasibility of commercial scale collection and recycling. Their primary goal was to describe the abundance and distribution of plastic in the gyre in the most rigorous study to date. Researchers were also looking at the impact of plastic on mesopelagic fish, such as lanternfish. Goldstein, Marci Rosenberg, and Lanna Cheng wrote: Plastic pollution in the form of small particles (diameter less than 5 mm) . They are known to interact with biota on the individual level, e. One potential mechanism for microplastic- induced alteration of pelagic ecosystems is through the introduction of hard- substrate habitat to ecosystems where it is naturally rare. Here, we show that microplastic concentrations in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG) have increased by two orders of magnitude in the past four decades, and that this increase has released the pelagic insect Halobates sericeus from substrate limitation for oviposition. High concentrations of microplastic in the NPSG resulted in a positive correlation between H. The dynamics of hard- substrate- associated organisms may be important to understanding the ecological impacts of oceanic microplastic pollution. Calling his project The Ocean Cleanup, he proposed to use surface currents to let debris drift to specially designed arms and collection platforms. Operating costs would be minimal and the operation would be so efficient that it might even be profitable. The concept makes use of floating booms, that divert rather than catch the debris. This way bycatch would be avoided, although even the smallest particles would be extracted. According to Slat's calculations, a gyre could be cleaned up in five years' time, collecting at least 7. The company sent crews to Hawaiian beaches to recover some of the debris that had washed up. The main purpose is to educate people about the garbage patch. The 2. 01. 2 Algalita/5 Gyres Asia Pacific Expedition began in the Marshall Islands on 1 May, investigated the little- studied Western Pacific garbage patch, collecting samples for the 5 Gyres Institute, Algalita Marine Research Foundation and several other colleagues, including NOAA, SCRIPPS, IPRC and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. A similar research expedition was conducted by SEA in the North Atlantic Ocean in 2. During the Plastics at SEA 2. North Pacific Expedition, a total of 1. It was the first of a series of events under the patronage of UNESCO and of the Italian Ministry of the Environment. A general overview is provided in Dautel, Susan L. For this and what follows, see Moore (2. Moore (2. 00. 9), which includes photographs taken from the patch,^Day, Robert H.; Shaw, David G.; Ignell, Steven E. Final Report to US Department of Commerce, National Marine Fisheries Service, Auke Bay Laboratory. For example, plastic entering the ocean in Japan is moved eastward by the Subarctic Current (in Subarctic Water) and the Kuroshio (in Transitional Water, Kawai 1. Favorite et al. In this way, the plastic is transported from high- density areas to low- density areas. In addition to this eastward movement, Ekman stress from winds tends to move surface waters from the subarctic and the subtropics toward the Transitional Water mass as a whole (see Roden 1. Because of the convergent nature of this Ekman flow, densities tend to be high in Transitional Water. In addition, the generally convergent nature of water in the North Pacific Central Gyre (Masuzawa 1. Emphasis added)^ ab. Moore, Charles (November 2. Natural History Magazine. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco: Hearst. Retrieved 2. 2 October 2. Straight Dope / Chicago Reader^Steve Gorman Scientists study huge plastic patch in Pacific Reuters^ ab. Moore, C. J; Moore, S. L; Leecaster, M. K; Weisberg, S. B (2. 00. 1). Marine Pollution Bulletin. National Geographic News. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 1. 6 March 2. The oceans, their physics, chemistry and general biology. New York: Prentice- Hall.^Eriksen, Marcus; Lebreton, Laurent C. M.; Carson, Henry S.; Thiel, Martin; Moore, Charles J.; Borerro, Jose C.; Galgani, Francois; Ryan, Peter G.; Reisser, Julia (2. M.; Carson, Henry S.; Thiel, Martin; Moore, Charles J.; Borerro, Jose C.; Galgani, Francois; Ryan, Peter G.; Reisser, Julia (2. San Francisco: Sierra Club. Retrieved 1. 3 August 2. Sea Grant College Program and NOAA. National Public Radio. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. Ropert- Coudert, Yan, ed. Bibcode: 2. 00. 9PLo. SO.. 4. 7. 62. 3Y. C.; Olsen, Y; Mitchell, RP; Davis, A; Rowland, SJ; John, AW; Mc. Gonigle, D; Russell, AE (2. A.; Galgani, F.; Thompson, R. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. National Geographic News. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 3. 0 August 2. Retrieved 5 April 2. Santa Barbara News- Press. Accessed 6- 1. 1- 1. Rios, Lorena M.; Moore, Charles; Jones, Patrick R. Marine Pollution Bulletin. Environmental Science & Technology. Bibcode: 2. 00. 4En. ST.. 3. 8. 4. 03. T. 3. 0 March 2. 01. Greenpeace Plastic Ocean Report.
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