About one thousand miles off the coast of California, in an isolated area of the north Pacific ocean known as the North Pacific Gyre, a slowly rotating whirlpool of water swirls in a giant clockwise spiral. At the center of the swirling mass of water sits a relatively still center, inviting the accumulation of whatever debris swirls into it.
Created by a high pressure system of trade and westerly winds, all the oceans of the world have massive, slow-moving gyres. While oceans across the globe have accumulated debris, the north Pacific Gyre is known to have amassed at its core the largest. This giant debris field, commonly known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, is estimated to be as large as the state of Texas (some sources say twice the size of Texas).
Scientists and researchers from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography have begun new research on the nature and origin of the Great Pacific Patch, as well as its effect on the local ecosystem and global food chain.
Walk on water
One common misconception of the Great Patch is that there is nothing but plastic and trash from one horizen to the other – like a huge island of trash upon which a person could walk. In fact, the area of the patch is so large, and for the most part the bits of debris in it are so small, that it is often difficult to see the accumulation with the naked eye.
“Certainly one does encounter pieces of plastic stuff that are big enough to see,” says Scripps deputy director for research Robert Knox, “But the other side of the puzzle is all the little bits and pieces of plastic that you can’t even see unless you scoop up a sample of seawater and see what’s in there.”
Along with the little bits of plastic, another big contributor to the patch are “huge masses of fishing nets,” according to Rusty Brainard with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The nets contribute to the destruction of ecosystems around the Hawaiian Islands, says Brainard.
But it is the plastic that is most insidious and deadly. The plastic slowly breaks down into ever smaller bits. Fooling seabirds into thinking it is food, they swoop in and ingest the toxic material.
Many skeletons of seabirds found on the Islands have their guts “just filled with plastic,” leading him and his colleagues to wonder what other animals are eating the plastic. Once the plastic gets into the food chain, it will eventually show up in the human food supply.
The Scripps research expedition, lasting from August 2 through 21 aboard the research vessel New Horizon, will “explore the threats from several angles,” according to a Scripps press release, “With research that includes surveys of plastic distribution, investigations of floating plastic and assessments of impacts on sea life.”
The project is intended to serve as a basis for further scientific study of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch specifically, and more generally how debris patches accumulate in the world’s oceans, their effect on ocean ecosystems, and how best to approach the problem, if possible, of cleaning up the mess.