Sea Speaks to the Souls on World Ocean Day 2015 - by Simran Vedvyasby Simran Vedvyas | 08-06-2015 17:14 |
|---|
   Raising Awareness to Reduce Plastic, Planting Native Ghaf Trees, Mangroove Rehabilitation and Beach Clean Ups Sea Speaks to the Soul is our theme to shout out loud by our ACTIONS for Oceans. Passion and Drive to commit and Change thinking Contact : Simran Vedvyas Like our Facebook Page (SynergY) www.facebook.com/CosmoFoundationYouth Email for more details- synergyouth@outlook.com DID you know that the Pacific Patch is not the only Garbage Patch, but it's the Biggest The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litterthat ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The patch is actually comprised of the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California. These areas of spinning debris are linked together by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone, located a few hundred kilometers north of Hawaii. This convergence zone is where warm water from the South Pacific meets up with cooler water from the Arctic. The zone acts like a highway that moves debris from one patch to another. Marine Debris No one knows how much debris makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is too large for scientists to trawl. In addition, not all trash floats on the surface. Denser debris can sink centimeters or even several meters beneath the surface, making the vortex?s area nearly impossible to measure. About 80% of the debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from land-based activities in North America and Asia. Trash from the coast of North America takes about six years to reach the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, while trash from Japan and other Asian countries takes about a year. The remaining 20% of debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch comes from boaters, offshore oil rigs, and large cargo ships that dump or lose debris directly into the water. The majority of this debris—about 705,000 tons—is fishing nets. More unusual items, such as computer monitors and LEGOs, come from dropped shippingcontainers. While many different types of trash enter the ocean, plastics make up the majority of marine debris for two reasons. First, plastic?s durability, low cost, and malleability mean that it?s being used in more and more consumer and industrial products. Second, plastic goods do not biodegrade but instead break down into smaller pieces. In the ocean, the sun breaks down these plastics into tinier and tinier pieces, a process known as photodegradation. Scientists have collected up to 750,000 bits of microplastic in a single square kilometer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—that?s about 1.9 million bits per square mile. Most of this debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups. Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life in the gyre. For instance, loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs. Seals and other marine mammals are especially at risk. They can get entangled in abandoned plastic fishing nets, which are being discarded more often because of their low cost. Seals and other mammals often drown in these forgotten nets—a phenomenon known as ?ghost fishing.? Marine debris can also disturb marine food webs in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. As microplastics and other trash collect on or near the surface of the ocean, they block sunlight from reaching plankton and algaebelow. Algae and plankton are the most common autotrophs, or producers, in the marine food web. Autotrophs are organisms that can produce their own nutrients from oxygen, carbon, and sunlight. If algae and plankton communities are threatened, the entire food web may change. Animals that feed on algae and plankton, such as fish and turtles, will have less food. If populations of those animals decrease, there will be less food for apex predators such as tuna, sharks, and whales. Eventually, seafood becomes less available and more expensive for people. These dangers are compounded by the fact that plastics both leach out and absorb harmful pollutants. As plastics break down through photodegradation, they leach out colorants and chemicals, such as bisphenol A (BPA), that have been linked to environmental and health problems. Conversely, plastics can also absorb pollutants, such as PCBs, from the seawater. These chemicals can then enter the food chain when consumed by marine life. Patching Up the Patch Because the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is so far from any country?s coastline, no nation will take responsibility or provide the funding to clean it up. Credits-http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/?ar_a=1 |
