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It covers an approximate surface area of 1. More than half of this plastic is less dense than the water, meaning that it will not sink once it encounters the sea. The stronger, more buoyant plastics show resiliency in the marine environment, allowing them to be transported over extended distances.
They persist at the sea surface as they make their way offshore, transported by converging currents and finally accumulating in the patch. Once these plastics enter the giant vortex of the patch, they are unlikely to leave the area until they degrade into smaller microplastics under the effects of sun, waves and marine life.
As more and more plastics are discarded into the environment, microplastic concentration in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will only continue to increase. In , Lecomte made his way across the Atlantic Ocean, in support of cancer research as a tribute to his father. Despite being followed by a shark for five days, being stung by jellyfish and being utterly exhausted, the year-old French-born long-distance swimmer successfully completed the journey in 73 days. To the northwest is another accumulation in the subtropical convergence zone and due west is the Western Garbage Patch, closer to the coast of Japan.
What's known as the Great Pacific Garbage patch is just part of the northern Pacific's pollution Last year, Lecomte attempted to swim 5, miles from Tokyo to San Fransisco. Ocean debris is continuously mixed by wind and wave action and widely dispersed both over huge surface areas and throughout the top portion of the water column. It is possible to sail through "garbage patch" areas in the Pacific and see very little or no debris on the water's surface.
It is also difficult to estimate the size of these "patches," because the borders and content constantly change with ocean currents and winds. The answer is that we do not know. The locations and sizes of these garbage patches are not likely to change very much any time soon.
However, the amount of debris may continue to grow as more and more debris enters our ocean each year. This growth will likely worsen current impacts on the environment, navigation, vessel safety, and the economy. It may not be possible to entirely get rid of garbage patches. Some of the material will take a very long time to break down in the environment, while other materials, like plastics, may never fully go away. Large debris, like fishing nets, can be removed by people, but debris in the garbage patches is also mostly made up by count of plastic pieces smaller than 5mm in size.
The debris is also continuously mixed by wind and wave action and is spread from the surface all the way to the ocean floor. Since these microplastics are so small in size, constantly being mixed, and spread out, it would be very difficult to remove them. Finding a cost effective technological solution which can take on these challenges is an extremely daunting task. Unfortunately, we will be dealing with this problem for the foreseeable future. Here at the NOAA Marine Debris Program, we focus on marine debris prevention and removal from shorelines and coastal areas where debris is easier to pick up.
Prevention is key to solving the marine debris problem over time. If you think about an overflowing sink, the first step before cleaning up the water is to turn the tap off. That is exactly how prevention works. By acting to prevent marine debris, we can stop this problem from growing.
To prevent marine debris, we need to understand where it is coming from.
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