By michael - February, 17th 2014

The largest parts of the garbage patch are floating on and below the surface of the ocean, so it is somewhat hard to see from above in aircraft or even when driving a boat through it. Over the years it has become more visible though. The negative effects on wildlife have and will be profound with deaths by ingestion or getting tangled up in the lager pieces of trash like old fishing nets and those infamous six pack plastic rings. More and more efforts are taking place to better understand this predicament of ocean pollution and to try to clean up as much as possible before any more damage can occur. To remove the this waste would be counter productive. You would be removing the plastic particle waste along with a large portion of the tiny animals, like plankton and phytoplankton that make up the basis of the food chain, and that are mixed up in it.

We all remember the day, March 11, 2011, when the world witnessed one of the most unimaginable events it has ever seen, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. People watched glued to their TV sets in disbelief, as they gazed at live footage of a huge tsunami engulfing the Japanese region. For many, who have not followed the Fukushima situation beyond that day, may not be privy to the fact that further earthquakes have since hit that region releasing even more radioactive elements into the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps even more hidden to most, is the fact that over the past few years, millions of tons of debris from the tsunami event, have been making their way across the Pacific Ocean (via the North Pacific Gyre/ current), to an area known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. After swirling around the Pacific Ocean for years, debris eventually make their way into two …

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