What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of ocean and marine debris (land litter such as plastics and waste that ends up in the oceans, seas and other water bodies).
How did the Great Pacific Garbage Patch form?
It is formed by the six main gyres, slow spirals of currents, which drag the rubbish to the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone. The North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone is an area of water where warmer water from the South Pacific ocean crashes into colder water of the North Pacific ocean. The convergence zone is where the trash collects to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
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A seal entangled in some garbage | A jellyfish caught in rubbish | A teddy bear entangled in a net |
A seal entangled in some garbage
A jellyfish caught in rubbish
A teddy bear entangled in a net
What steps are being taken to rectify/fix the problem?
There are research teams spending time on figuring out a way to get rid of the garbage patch and they have been testing the plastics but have not yet found a solution to the problem but in the mean time we can make sure that we put all of our rubbish especially plastics in the bin instead of on the ground.
Random fact!
One of the most famous debris spills came in 1992, when 28,000 rubber ducks fell overboard in the Pacific Ocean. The ducks continue to turn up on beaches around the world to this day.
