A New Gyre
Discovered in the 1990's, the North Pacific Garbage Patch has been a hot topic when it comes to plastic pollution. But while it has been a duly noted, well researched shock , it has only since grown. Numerous efforts have been made to gain more knowledge on the issue of pollution, and how to not only slow it down (because stopping it is impossible) but clean it up. Now, more knowledge is to be gained as another large garbage patch has been discovered in the Pacific Ocean. Off the coasts of Chile, Peru, and Easter Island lies the South Pacific gyre, a current that has captured enough plastic debris and particles to create a garbage patch larger than the state of Texas or the country of Mexico. In 2011, samples were taken by Captain Charles Moore, the same man that discovered the North Pacific garbage patch. The biggest difference between the South Pacific garbage patch and the North Pacific are its contents. Both consist of a multitude of plastic, but while the Northern Pacific gyre collected debris the Southern Pacific gyre seems to have trapped more micro plastics. Micro plastics are the broken down, more finite pieces of plastic, the same way that sand comes from rock (only the plastic is not as finite as sand). Now, imagine an ocean where the water is so polluted, so densely filled with these bits of micro plastic, that the water looks smoggy, muggy, and course. Millions of these plastic particles reside in a single square kilometer of the ocean here!
The article provided also touches on the fate of marine life. Lanternfish are a thriving species, making up over half of the volume of all living organisms in our oceans. However, studies have found that at least 35% of lanternfish have consumed plastic. Not only do these plastics not digest, but they often contain numerous chemicals (as we should be well aware of among all the cancer warning labels we use). So if the contents themselves don't kill the lanternfish from lack of digestion, they will from poisoning. This has occurred to numerous sea creatures, including turtles, and whales. Why does that matter, you ask? Even if one doesn't care about the survival and existence of diverse species, one may care about their own survival. Lanternfish are used as prey for the tuna and salmon that we consume, meaning that anything lanternfish consume, we are second-hand.
Photo: The contents of this decaying baby albatross contains a multitude of bottle caps and other plastic debris. It was living hundreds of miles from any people.
Reflection
We, as people, a species on this planet less long than most other species, have somehow created enough garbage in the ocean to create lumps larger than India. We have literally created mounds of debris larger than whole countries. Up to 8% of the Pacific Ocean is now made up of our debris. Our trash. Our pollution. Our chemicals. That is unsurmountable. No other species has made an impact on this planet the way we have, or on another species, considering the number of endangerments and extinctions that we have caused. Henderson Island, an island near South America, is one of the most polluted places on Earth, with over 38 MILLION pieces of trash. What's worse, the island is UNINHABITED. It is one of the world's last two raised coral atolls that people have not yet made contact with and destroyed. Yet the island is still covered in plastic debris washed up by ocean currents in combination with dead animals whose stomachs are filled with the plastic and debris that they've eaten. No rock is going unturned and no animal is going untouched in this apparent extermination of the planet that we are currently making exponential headway on.
"A 2015 study published in the journal science estimates that between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic entered our oceans in 2010".
Montgomery, Hailey. “South Pacific Ocean Gyre Holds Massive Garbage Patch.” The Weather Network, 27 July 2017, www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/ocean-pacific-gyre-pollution-garbage-patch/84565 .