The Great Pacific Rubbish Patch

The Great Pacific Rubbish Patch-

Twice the size of France, the Great Pacific Rubbish Patch or Garbage Patch is the name given to all the rubbish that has been dumped in to the oceans and now just floats around the world and sits on shorelines across the globe. Some lumps can float together in huge piles.

They consist mainly of plastics and were discovered by Charles Moore, at the time a sailing enthusiast. Items found amongst the rubbish include; toothbrushes, bottles, bottle caps, fishing equipment, packaging and plastic bags.

Beneath the piles, to a depth of ten metres, are thousands of tinyplastic flecks, scientists worry that many marine animals may be ingesting this, probably mistaking it for plankton. Moore discovered in one area there were ten times more plastics than plankton.

It was later discovered that navies and commercial shipping boats contributed 639 000 plastic containers to this mess a year. When this washes up onto shorelines many bird species or marine mammals, such as seals, will eat it or get stuck and die.

There are organisations aimed at reducing this, for example, The Marine Debris Programme, garbagepatch.org and 38degrees. But they need your help and donations to put and end to dumping and reduce the huge environmental hazard.

Image via Flickr

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

How to help-

http://www.greatgarbagepatch.org/

http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/funding/welcome.html

http://38degrees.uservoice.com/forums/78585-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/1114135-plastic-bottles-the-curse-of-our-time-

Sources-

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/5208645/Drowning-in-plastic-The-Great-Pacific-Garbage-Patch-is-twice-the-size-of-France.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/metrobest/3486391918/sizes/l/