Ocean Trash Patches Research

     The global topic being studied is the "trash islands" in the Atlantic and Pacific. These are giant accumulations of plastic waste that s brought together by ocean currents in the north Atlantic gyre and north Pacific subtropical gyre. The Atlantic island is located in the Sargasso Sea, south and east of Bermuda. The Atlantic patch's existence was confirmed in 2010. It may contain up to 500,00 pieces of plastic per square mile in some areas. This would rival the patch in the pacific, which was discovered in the 1990s. The pacific patch or the great pacific garbage patch is located in the north pacific. Holly Bamford director of NOAA's Marine Debris Program described the patch as a galaxy of garbage, which is made up of billions of small trash islands that could be hiding under the water and spread out over many miles. It has been described as big as twice the size of Texas. It is located between the Hawaiian Islands and California.

     These trash patches are formed mostly from plastic waste that can come as far away as the interior of continents. It is washed into sewers and rivers by rain. It eventually finds it’s way to the ocean were it joins other trash that has been washed off of beaches and costal areas. It then takes about 7 years for it to reach the garbage patch depending on how for away it started. Other debris such as fishing nets is lost at sea and picked up by the currents. Another source are cargo ships. They occasionally lose containers during storms and high seas. The most famous of these being a container carrying 28,000 rubber ducks in 1992. They are still washing up on beaches around the world today.

     The main surface particles in these trash patches are resin pellets. These are transported around the world to factories to be melted down into different things. They are easily lost along the way due to their small size. These small particles wreck havoc on sea birds. The birds eat them and other floating trash and then feed it to their chicks. The chicks eventually die of starvation or ruptured organs. These pellets only degrade through the process of photodegradaton, which takes thousands of years.

Sources

http://www.globalgarbage.org/blog/index.php/2010/07/17/fishing-for-pollution-in-the-atlantic/

http://bernews.com/2010/12/real-bermuda-triangle/

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-is-the-great-pacific-ocean-garbage-patch