The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not the only marine trash patch, but it is the biggest. It spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The patch is actually made up of two parts: the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between Hawaii and California.

The entire Great Pacific Garbage Patch is bounded by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. A gyre is a large system of swirling ocean currents. The area in the center of a gyre tends to be very calm and stable. The circular motion of the gyre draws debris into this stable center, where it becomes trapped. 

MARINE LIFE

From the perspective of a land animal like us, the ocean can be a harsh environment. However, marine life are adapted to live in the ocean. But they aren't really adapted to live in an ocean that's filled with plastic. We have changed the oceans with all the plastic deposited into them. Every year, around 12.7 million tonnes of plastic enters our seas. Every minute, in fact, one refuse truckload of plastic is dumped in our oceans. If these rates continue, experts predict that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our seas than fish.The most visible impacts of plastic debris are the ingestion, suffocation and entanglement of hundreds of marine species. Marine wildlife such as seabirds, whales, fish and turtles mistake plastic waste for prey; most then die of starvation as their stomachs become filled with plastic.