Great Pacific Garbage Patch
"As I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean, I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic. It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the week it took to cross the subtropical high, no matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments."
Basically, a large section of the pacific, which due to circular currents never really gets cleaned out, has accumulated a vast amount of our trash, just floating around. In doing so, it has had quite a severe effect on the environment. The trash is quite impressively prevalent, though the above description is not characteristic. From wikipedia:
"certain areas of the patch, concentrations of plastic reached one million pieces per square mile.[8] The study found concentrations of plastics of 3.34 pieces with a mean mass of 5.1 milligrams per square meter. In many areas of the affected region, the overall concentration by mass of plastics was greater than the concentration of zooplankton, the principal neustonic organism. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Garbage_Patch
Basically, a large section of the pacific, which due to circular currents never really gets cleaned out, has accumulated a vast amount of our trash, just floating around. In doing so, it has had quite a severe effect on the environment. The trash is quite impressively prevalent, though the above description is not characteristic. From wikipedia:
"certain areas of the patch, concentrations of plastic reached one million pieces per square mile.[8] The study found concentrations of plastics of 3.34 pieces with a mean mass of 5.1 milligrams per square meter. In many areas of the affected region, the overall concentration by mass of plastics was greater than the concentration of zooplankton, the principal neustonic organism. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Garbage_Patch
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