MORE ON THE SITE: PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a giant accumulation of man made debris suspended in the upper water column of the North Pacific Ocean, roughly located between 135° to 155°W and 35°to 42°N, calculated to be close to twice the size of Texas (about 8 times the size of Britain) and to contain as much as 100 million tons of marine debris. The patch, of which 80-90% is plastic materials, is mostly formed by discarded material dumped from the U.S.A.’s west coast and from Japan and is gathered together by the North Pacific Gyre, that is the largest ecosystem on Earth and consists a system of prevailing currents that collects, the debris and traps it in the center of the vortex, forming the patch. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch has one of the highest levels known of plastic particulate suspended in the upper water column. As a result, it is one of several oceanic regions where researchers have studied the effects and impact of plastic photo-degradation in the neustonic layer of water. Unlike debris that biodegrades, the photo-degraded plastic disintegrates into ever-smaller pieces while remaining a polymer. This process continues to the molecular lever. The existence of The Patch was predicted in a 1988 on paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States and has been brought to mainstream attention by Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Foundation, who came across it coming back from a sail race between Los Angeles and Hawaii (Moore, 2003).

Acording to Greenpeace, debri takes about 6 years to travel from the coast of the continental US and Japan to reach the the vortex and form the patch. The patch, like most marine debri concentrations, has been gradually formed by the gathering of marine pollution by oceanic currents, over the course of many years. It ocupies a large relatively stationary area, although recent data sugests the presence of two zones of concentrated debri conected by the Gyre's Convergence Zone.

Despite the size and density of the patch, it is not visible from satellite photography since it's primary component is small plastic particles suspended in the upper water column, on, or just bellow, the surface. Also, since plastic degrades into smaller and smaller polymers, it is not possible to view it through satellite pictures. This has led to even more speculation regarding the size, shape and location of the pacth, and even to some people doubting its existence.

It is important to note that the patch is NOT a floating island of garbage over which you could walk; images and videos found on different publications relating to the patch that show this situations are showing the plastic debri that has escaped or wasn't trapped by the North Pacific Gyre's Convergence Zone and has been washed up on the shores of the Hawaii Islands and Alaska

I haven't been able to embed a scaled version of the Greenpeace animation showing the currents that cause the Gyre and the movement of trash from the coast to the Patch click here to see it on the Greenpeace website, give a read to the info on the Patch while you're at it too!