Eco News #22 – Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

October 20th, 2012

Hello Greenzoners, we’d like to share with you with another Eco News, this one’s concerning really interesting and important issue – Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.

garbage patch

What is this? It’s an accumulation of garbage, floating on the northern Pacific Ocean. It stretches to hundreds of miles and, if all this garbage would be gathered in one place, it would cover the surface almost as big as France.
It’s made of plastic, which is not biodegradable, so it flows forever. The garbage comes most of the times from beach (left unattended and then swept by waves), fishing boats and cargo ships.

Not only does it pollute the water, but also is dangerous to the underwater animals. Many sea species were found dead entangled in old fishing nets or poisoned by accidental swallowing plastic or steel leftovers. One of the most vulnerable are sea turtles – they also often drown caught in abandoned fishing nets and eat plastic bags, mistaking them for jellyfish.
It also harms birds that feed on fish – for example, albatrosses, who are found dead of poisoning by indigestible plastic.

Turtle caught in a net

There are plans to clean the ocean from the garbage, but the huge amount of this garbage and how it’s widespread, makes it very difficult if not impossible.

Garbage patch

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/translating-uncle-sam/stories/what-is-the-great-pacific-ocean-garbage-patch

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3 Responses to “Eco News #22 – Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch”

  1. wasea says:

    thats terrible

  2. gabriieliitooh says:

    wao que mall es terrible ver eso

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