Moore alerted the oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who subsequently dubbed the region the "Eastern Garbage Patch" (EGP). Moore, returning home through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpacific Yacht Race in 1997, claimed to have come upon an enormous stretch of floating debris. They specifically indicated the North Pacific Gyre. Extrapolating from findings in the Sea of Japan, the researchers hypothesized that similar conditions would occur in other parts of the Pacific where prevailing currents were favorable to the creation of relatively stable waters. Researchers found relatively high concentrations of marine debris accumulating in regions governed by ocean currents. The description was based on research by several Alaska-based researchers in 1988 who measured neustonic plastic in the North Pacific Ocean.
FIND THE MEAN OF A PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION IN MINITAB EXPRESS PATCH
The patch was described in a 1988 paper published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The area of increased plastic particles is located within the North Pacific Gyre, one of the five major ocean gyres. This growing patch contributes to other environmental damage to marine ecosystems and species. A similar patch of floating plastic debris is found in the Atlantic Ocean, called the North Atlantic garbage patch. The gyre contains approximately six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton.
Estimated to be double the size of Texas, the area contains more than 3 million short tons (2.7 million metric tons) of plastic. The patch is believed to have increased "10-fold each decade" since 1945. Research indicates that the patch is rapidly accumulating. Some of the plastic in the patch is over 50 years old, and includes items (and fragments of items) such as "plastic lighters, toothbrushes, water bottles, pens, baby bottles, cell phones, plastic bags, and nurdles." The small fibers of wood pulp found throughout the patch are "believed to originate from the thousands of tons of toilet paper flushed into the oceans daily." Researchers from The Ocean Cleanup project claimed that the patch covers 1.6 million square kilometres (620 thousand square miles). This is because the patch is a widely dispersed area consisting primarily of suspended "fingernail-sized or smaller"-often microscopic-particles in the upper water column known as microplastics. The gyre is divided into two areas, the "Eastern Garbage Patch" from California to Hawaii, and the "Western Garbage Patch" extending from Hawaii to Japan.ĭespite the common public perception of the patch existing as giant islands of floating garbage, its low density (4 particles per cubic metre (3.1/cu yd)) prevents detection by satellite imagery, or even by casual boaters or divers in the area. The collection of plastic and floating trash originates from the Pacific Rim, including countries in Asia, North America, and South America. It is located roughly from 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N. The Great Pacific garbage patch (also Pacific trash vortex) is a garbage patch, a gyre of marine debris particles, in the central North Pacific Ocean. The patch is created in the gyre of the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone.