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On his return voyage, after a 1997 yacht race to Hawaii, Charles J. Moore, an oceanographer and racing boat captain, veered from the usual sea route and saw an ocean he had never known. "Every time I came on deck to survey the horizon, I saw a soap bottle, bottle cap or a shard of plastic waste bobbing by. Here I was in the middle of the ocean and there was nowhere I could go to avoid the plastic."

Great Pacific Garbage Patch

This “garbage patch”  is an area of marine debris concentration in the Northern Pacific. While litter there is debris such as discarded fishing nets, bottles, caps, etc, it is not a literal blanket of trash that is visible from satellites or aerial photographs.  Much of the debris is actually bits of floating plastic, quite small, and not immediately seen by the naked eye.

Nurdles In Paradise

These bits of plastics, or nurdles, break down under the rays of the sun into minute particles light enough to float in the air. The potential scope of the problem is staggering. These bits of plastic accululate toxic chemicals in the marine environment such as PCPs and DDT.

In Moore's 1999 study, he showed that there was 6 times more plastic in this part of the ocean than the zooplankton that feeds ocean life. In 2002, a later study showed that even off the coast of California, plastic outweighed zooplankton by a factor of 2:5. These are then ingested by marine life who transport them back to the human "fish eating polluters".

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Solution to the Problem?

While some may say that's it's too late to do anything to fix the problem, we remind you of the story of the little boy who is throwing starfish back into the ocean after they've been washed up on the beach. Someone comments to him that there's so many starfish on the beach that he won't be making a difference. His reply as he throws yet another starfish back in the ocean: "Made a difference to that one."

So while you may not be able to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on your own, we can all make a difference in our own lives by: Reducing, Reusing, Recycling. In other words, limit the amount of plastic that you buy; limit the amount you throw away by reusing as much as you can; and recycle whenever possible. Encourage your county or city to institute a recycling program if they don't have one, arrange for your school or office to supply bins for recycling, and, of course, recycle at home.

Focus on how you can make a difference, one piece of garbage at a time.

Recommended book:

Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands
by Cathryn Berger Kaye M.A., Philippe Cousteau and EarthEcho International.

Going Blue educates young people about the earth’s water crisis and gives them tools and inspiration to transform their ideas into action. With lively photos and practical suggestions, the book helps teens plan and do a meaningful service project that benefits our planet’s water system. Along the way, readers learn about issues such as clean water access, coral reef damage, runoff pollution, trash islands, factory fishing, bottled water, and much more. This combination of academic learning and community service is at the heart of the fast-growing teaching strategy known as service learning.

Click here for more info and/or to purchase this book.

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