Zara Kanwal - Ocean Garbage Patches

Ocean Garbage Patches
Zara Kanwal
2/5/19
Hidden in the depths of the seas is an immense amount of pollution largely caused by humans. Garbage patches, which are formed by gyres, are large areas of the ocean where litter, fishing gear, and other debris collects. While the five main gyres help to circulate ocean water around the globe, they also draw in the pollution released by humans in coastal areas, known as marine debris. It is estimated that 1.15 to 2.41 million tons of plastic are entering the ocean each year from rivers. The rotating ocean currents from the gyres pull the debris into one location, usually the gyre’s center, and form patches of waste. Once plastics enter the gyre, they are unlikely to leave until they degrade into smaller microplastics as a result of the sun, waves, and marine life. The most famous example of this phenomenon is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located in the North Pacific Gyre.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to cover a surface area of 1.6 million square kilometers, which is twice the size of Texas and three times the size of France. Researchers estimate that the mass of plastic in the patch is over 80,000 tons, and a total of 1.8 trillion plastic pieces are estimated to be floating within the gyre. Due to the ever changing winds and currents, the location and shape of Great Pacific Garbage Patch are constantly shifting.
This accumulation of plastic in the ocean proves to be a considerable threat to marine life. When eaten by marine animals, plastic can poison them due to toxic chemicals present in the debris or lead to deadly blockages in their digestive system. Entanglement also poses a threat as fishing nets make up nearly 46% of the mass in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and can be fatal for animals who become entangled within in the net and cannot free themselves. Plastic greatly affects seabirds as well. For example, albatrosses roam a wide area of the Northern Pacific Ocean in search of food. This leads to many of the birds ingesting and dying from plastic as well as hundreds of thousands of their own young dying from consuming plastic fed to them by their parents. All in all, over a million birds and marine animals die each year from consuming or being entangled in plastic.

Clearly, pollution in the world’s oceans has had a devastating effect on marine life and action needs to be taken to reduce it. Unfortunately, it is impossible to entirely eliminate garbage patches. Microplastics are very small in size and are constantly being mixed and spread out within the ocean, making them very difficult to remove. Experts say that the most effective way to help is by managing waste on land and eliminating marine debris at its source. This includes lobbying companies to find environmentally safe alternatives to plastic as well as removing debris from shorelines and coastal areas. If garbage patches in the ocean go ignored, they will continue to harm marine life and pollute the ocean with potentially deadly waste.
Questions:
Aside from plastic, what other pollutants are harming marine life?
What human activities are causing the pollution of ocean waters and the formation of garbage patches?
What can you do to help clean up the oceans?
Sources:


Comments

Anonymous said…
Great post. As you said, fishing nets makes up an absurdly large amount of the garbage in the ocean. Perhaps one step we can take is advocating for increased regulations on commercial fishing on an international level, and increased enforcement of such laws. Aside from the threat of pollutants and plastics filling the ocean waters, often times we overfish the oceans, contributing to multiple large-scale problems at once. Of course, such laws are hard to enforce, especially when fishing is such an integral part of many economies small and large, but I feel not all solutions can be the easy ones.
February 5, 2019 at 6:23 AM
Anonymous said…
This is an interesting subject. Not only does the pollution of the oceans affect the marine life, but it can also have major impacts on the human population. Bioaccumulation is when the chemicals in the plastics enter the body of the organism that ingests it. Because of this, the chemicals can then enter the food chain and have the potential of being consumed by humans. These chemicals can then have harmful effects on the body, such as cancer. All of this environmental damage can also have economic affects for humans. The cost of clean up and damage to fisheries can be worth much more than the cost of preventing the pollution in the first place.
February 5, 2019 at 10:47 AM
Anonymous said…
This is a very saddening subject. I researched about this while i was in dual credit English, and the consequences of these patches in our oceans are awful. Luckily, there are already people and companies out there that are working to combat this. One of them includes a small, circular, portable (sort of) hole that sucks in small plastics and filters back out the water. Another project in the works is a (sort of) line of bouyos that are placed into the ocean that trap micro plastics but are not big enough to trap fish. A lot more needs to be put in to begin to revert these damages, but there are steps being taken by brave individuals.
February 5, 2019 at 11:29 AM
Anonymous said…
The topic of water pollution easily displays that humans have ignored and failed to prevent the consequences of how we have carried out technological advancements and industrial developments. We now have to start recognizing that even the trivial, careless actions that we may take will greatly affect the nature and its cycling system. One way to reduce the risk is that we can promote campaigns and funds to assist and create teams that will secure what goes in and out of the water streams in large bodies of water.
February 5, 2019 at 6:04 PM
Anonymous said…
I remember hearing about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but I didn’t know it was twice the size of Texas! It makes sense to try and solve the problem at it’s source rather than start by trying to clean up the garbage patch, because trash will keep on forming at these patches until we stop people and companies from dumping in the oceans. I never knew until taking APES that these patches form in the ocean because of gyres.
February 6, 2019 at 5:59 AM
Anonymous said…
Pollution in the ocean is, and has always been, a prevalent issue. Another source of ocean pollution is oil spills; oil spills severely affect marine ecosystems. Oil destroyed the insulating ability of furry mammals (such as sea otters) and lightweight, water-repelling abilities of birds’ feathers (such as pelicans and seagulls). Additionally, birds and other animals can ingest oil by accident, which can poison them; similarily, fish that come into contact with oil may experience a number of developmental issues. It is mind boggling that the ocean is in such a horrible state due to anthropogenic activties, and that the resulting garbage patches and oil spills end up as severe detriments to the environment.
February 6, 2019 at 8:05 AM
Anonymous said…
This was a sad (but very real) post (the picture really adds to the sad nature of this story). The fact that there’s a patch of garbage floating about in the Pacific Ocean 3x the size of a country is disheartening, and what’s even worse is that the increased pollution filtering into the Pacific Ocean is entirely preventable by humans. By using reusable bags instead of plastic, recycling, and helping clean up the shore lines, we can help prevent the increase of trash in our oceans.
February 6, 2019 at 8:11 AM
Anonymous said…
I like how you mention that “brave individuals” are stepping out to fix this problem. It takes a lot to be able to realize that we are causing a problem, and takes more to be willing to make a change. I find it interesting that so much waste goes into our river systems, enough to put such a large amount of trash into the ocean. Could it be possible to combing the filtering at the rivers with the filters at the coast? I wonder if that would be a feasible solution.
February 6, 2019 at 2:16 PM
Anonymous said…
Laws of this sort that could further regulate the fishing industry would be ideal for reducing what we leave behind in the ocean... The issue, as you said, would be actually implementing and enforcing these laws. At a certain point, the responsibility lies in the hands of those who are doing the fishing to make the right choice when cleaning up their fishing waste. It is impossible to influence the morals of all of the fishing companies worldwide, but perhaps educating them with articles like Zara’s could show them why they should make change.
February 6, 2019 at 10:07 PM
Anonymous said…
This is a great post! Not only does garbage affect aquatic ecosystems, but so do oil spills and runoff from fertilizer/pesticides. This can lead to excess nutrients in the ocean and eutrophication and algal blooms. Among other factors adding to pollution include deep sea mining which can lead to unhealthy amounts of element deposits. Oil covers the feathers of birds and gills of fish. Substances accumulate in the fatty tissue of fish which humans then consume. Thus, the effects of polluting the ocean are numerous and detrimental.
February 7, 2019 at 11:07 AM
Anonymous said…
This was a very interesting post! I think most people fail to realize that ocean pollution has multifaceted negative impacts. It doesn’t solely harm individual sea species, but it can also harm the overall oceanic food webs and human economic processes. I did some additional research on how ocean pollution directly affects food web. The widespread polllutants cause bioaccumulation. This occurs when chemicals from the plastics enter the body of the organism that ingests it. From here, the chemicals can enter the food chain and may be consumed by other organisms or potentially humans. These chemicals can have several adverse health impilications, sch as cancer in humans or unhealthy diets in turtles.
February 7, 2019 at 9:13 PM
Anonymous said…
I had previously heard about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but whenever I tried to visualize a solution, I came up shortsighted. It is extremely disheartening to realize that an entirely preventable garbage patch twice the size of Texas is floating around the ocean, disrupting marine life and marine ecosystems. The fact that such a patch exists goes to show that human acitivities that lead to large amounts of garbage needs to be more closely monitored, in order to prevent the Pacific patch, or other similar patches, from growing in size. One possible solution is just to simply encourage more alternatives to using plastic, as plastic can’t end up in the ocean if it is never used.
February 7, 2019 at 9:17 PM
Anonymous said…
This was a very eye opening post! Many of us hear about the pollution in the oceans and the garbage patches, but don't realize how much pollution this is, or how devastating its effects are. The EPA’s Marine Pollution Control Branch and the U.S. Army's Corps of Engineers share responsibility for protecting the ocean from the disposal of dredged material that is unsuitable for the ocean environment. Both regularly evaluate ocean disposal inquiries from the public and provide technical support to other agencies to ensure that ocean dumping is appropriately regulated and safeguards human health and the environment. Additionally, people can take measures to properly dispose of trash and use alternatives to plastic.
February 8, 2019 at 6:26 AM
Anonymous said…
There is actually a very simple solution to ocean pollution. Boundaries should be drawn between countries in the ocean, and each countries’ fishing and ocean-based industries should be entitled to the resources of the marked territory. If one country’s runoff pollution enters another country’s territory, the companies responsible for the pollution must pay monetary compensation to the other country—and the other country should be obligated to distribute the money to the affected industries. This simple regulatory system will emplace a negative incentive to pollute.
February 8, 2019 at 7:15 AM
Anonymous said…
This was a very interesting post! Many of us know that there is tons or garbage in the oceanarium, but this post really shows the extent to which this garbage is accumulating. It is crazy to think that 46% of the garbage accumulated in the ocean is fishing net. Many turtles and many other marine life are affected and killed by all this junk in the ocean. Upon research I came across many ways to sustain cleanliness, and prevent a greater amount of garbage in the ocean. One thing adults can do is vote. The government has elections about many marine life bills. Secondly, you could use reusable plastic products. Instead of using regular straws, buy metal or silicon straws to reuse. Using reusable straws can save the turtles from having straws stuck up their noses. These are just a few ways to keep our oceans clean.
February 8, 2019 at 8:08 PM
Anonymous said…
Extremely educational post, I feel that we should all take steps to reducing th amount of garbage waste placed into our oceans. Instead of delegating the task and responsibility of keeping the ocean clean to individual countries/territories, we should all care for the well being of our ocean as a whole. If left to circulate, the plastic will impact our ecosystems, health and economies. Solving it requires a combination of closing the source, and cleaning up what has already accumulated in the ocean.
February 9, 2019 at 12:28 PM
Anonymous said…
This blog is very interesting and discusses a major problem regarding our sea life. I did further research on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and found that these pieces of plastic in the oceans can affect the sea life indirectly also. These pieces of plastic can block sunlight, which the algae in the ocean need to survive. With the sunlight being blocked, algae are not able to develop and thrive, which means that less algae results in the whole food chain being negatively disrupted. Also, these plastics are leeching chemicals into the water which can also harm the food chain, which in turn cna kill many of the sea life in our waters.
February 10, 2019 at 9:05 AM
Anonymous said…
Another marine pollutant I can think of is carbon dioxide. When carbon dioxide dissolves into the ocean, the carbon combines with calcium to form calcium carbonate. The massive amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that ends up in the ocean leads to excess calcium carbonate that causes extreme coral growth. This disrupts marine ecosystems and harms the environment. Anthropogenic activities like air pollution with greenhouse gases and throwing garbage into the ocean, like you mentioned, contribute to marine pollution and the formation of garbage patches. To help clean up the oceans, I can individually just stop throwing garbage into the oceans, but I can help more by raising awareness for this problem and advocating for the end of water pollution with such trash at beaches, where most of this trash comes from.
February 10, 2019 at 12:52 PM
Anonymous said…
I also remember hearing about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, but I never expected it to be twice the size of the state that we live in, a comparison that really puts the scale of the patch in perspective. Although cleaning up the garbage patch itself is necessary and beneficial for the oceans and marine life, I agree that we should invest more of our time and efforts into solving the problem at its source. Educating others about this issue and encouraging people and companies to stop using the oceans as waste disposals could minimize further devastation of marine life and contribute to cleaner, healthier environments for our oceans.
February 10, 2019 at 1:55 PM
Anonymous said…
You make a good point. We all know that pollution is bad, but it can be hard to see how it really impacts our lives. In addition to the polluted water impacting us through the consumption of fish and other creatures, causing cancer, the ocean provides us with 70% of our oxygen and is our main source of water. These two incredibly vital sources of life are being polluted by anthropogenic means, which is just as detrimental to us as it is to the marine organisms. We need to ensure that we are reducing the waste in oceans by educating others and leaving little to no effect on the environment by recycling.
February 11, 2019 at 5:17 AM
Anonymous said…
Yes and to continue that last comment, we as a community can do a lot to try and control and regulate how we live and use the bodies of water around us. We can either choose to try and help individually by doing our own part or think of the bigger picture and attempt to develop regulation and laws in order to get the whole world around us to do everything they can to reduce waste and filter our water. Starting from the source is a great introduction to fixing our water problem through natural sources.
February 11, 2019 at 6:29 AM
Anonymous said…
Another example of marine pollution is oil spills. Throughout history, oil spills have occurred with devastating consequences. One of the most well known oil spills was Deepwater Horizon, also known as the BP oil spill. In April 2010, the accident began after a spill from a seafloor oil gusher, leading to the explosion of the BP’s oil rig, Deepwater Horizon, in its Macondo Prospect. The accident killed 11 men working abroad the rig and also resulted in an oil spill that continued for over three months. An estimated 53,000 barrels were flowing into the Gulf of Mexico every day. The accident also made extensive damages to the marine environment. According to the Centre for Biological Diversity, the oil spill killed over 82,000 birds, 25,900 marine mammals, 6,000 sea turtles and tens of thousands of fish, among others.
February 11, 2019 at 6:46 AM
Anonymous said…
I was not aware that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was twice the state of Texas! It is incredibly disheartening that humans largely contribute to the ever growing patches of trash that affect millions of marine life in the world’s oceans. Pollution in the ocean directly impacts the marine ecosystems by limiting fitness and survival of key producer players in food chains, reducing critical populations of predators. I believe that it is our responsibility to “stop this at its source.” By reducing the amount of litter, cleaning up beaches and parks, and throwing garbage away in the trash to begin with, we can work to limit the amount of trash destroying ecosystems in the oceans.
February 11, 2019 at 7:39 AM
Anonymous said…
This was a very informative blog post. I had no idea that so much trash was present in the ocean. Aside from plastic and other solid waste products, other pollutants such as pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, detergents, and most famously, oil. In the BP oil spill, not only did the oil negatively affect marine life, but so did the oil dispersants which were injected into the situation to help resolve the problem. In order to protect marine life, legislation should be passed to prevent oil spills & if they do occur, to have an effective plan to clean up the mess.
February 11, 2019 at 3:16 PM
Anonymous said…
Thank you for this very informative and eye opening post about just how bad this problem is. Many of us are aware of the pollution in the ocean. For example, we often see sad pictures of marine animals and trash along beaches. However, through your post, I learned that the problem is of a much larger magnitude. Countries need to do a better job regulating the ocean inside of their control. For example, most countries in the world have signed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a Convention that sets aside 12 nautical miles of the ocean along the country's coastline for each signatory. Countries need to take responsibility for the ocean under their control, as stated by UNCLOS, and also their EEZ. Moreover, on a smaller scale, individuals should pick up trash they see along the shore.
February 11, 2019 at 5:34 PM
Anonymous said…
It’s disheartening to think that one of the biggest components of our oceans are massive vortexes of garbage. The fact that the 46% of the trash is fishing nets really shows how the fishing industry impacts our oceans. This massive amount of trash, paired with ocean acidification, and the occasional oil spill truly is a recipe for disaster. I think its important to better monitor what is allowed out on the open ocean and the kind of safety protocols in place regarding the materials allowed, espcially since a decent amount fo those fishing nets are simply lost off of legal fishing boats. I think an intersteign way to help reduce the trash in the ocean would perhaps be to have beach-goers pick ups one trash each time they visit in exchange for entry or for certain benefits like extended beach time or food.
February 12, 2019 at 9:50 AM
Anonymous said…
The garbage patch, when thinking about it, is quite scary. It’s scary to thinking about how much waste we produce and how much that effects the ocean that makes up the majority of the world we live in. I’ve known about the garbage patch for years, but I didn’t know that fishing was the main contributor to the problem. In order to fix this, we must be educated on how our wasteful lifestyles effects the ocean and come up with new plans as to how to fix it.
February 12, 2019 at 7:47 PM
Anonymous said…
This blog post was very informative! The ocean is a very important part of our ecosystem and the thought of them being large disposals for garbage is very disappointing. I feel like something else that can be affecting marine life is run off of chemicals, such as fertilizer. I feel like a way to decrease this would be to create buffer zones where this wastewater can go or put a limit on the number of pesticides or type of pesticide that can be used.
February 12, 2019 at 9:26 PM
Anonymous said…
I agree that is is very disconcerting to learn the horrible effects that the careless disposal of garbage into the ocean that is occurring. I remember when I first learned of the growing problem that the garbage patch is after seeing a picture of a sea turtle with plastic hanging on its neck. That disturbing picture really opened my eyes to this dilemma and the way it is harming sea creatures. I think a possible solution to the garbage patch is to have the government to pass and enforce strict restrictions on ways garbage can be disposed and fund ways to clean up the ocean.
February 12, 2019 at 9:53 PM
Cathy Kim said…
I enjoyed reading your post! The oceans all play a crucial role in our environment and I feel that it is our duty to protect and preserve to the best of our abilities, given that the oceans provide so much for us. I did some further research and learned that about 8 million tons of garbage ends up in our oceans each year and seeing this number was extremely shocking. I sense that there is a lack of education and sense of urgency to the public as to how much we are harming our environment and that something must be done before its too late.
February 19, 2019 at 7:58 PM
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