Great Pacific Garbage Patch
[3] Despite 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.
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.
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.
[14] Charles J. 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.
Moore alerted the oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who subsequently dubbed the region the "Eastern Garbage Patch" (EGP).
[16] The JUNK Raft Project was a 2008 trans-Pacific sailing voyage made to highlight the plastic in the patch, organized by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
[20] The Scripps Institute of Oceanography's 2009 SEAPLEX expedition in part funded by Ocean Voyages Institute/Project Kaisei[21] also researched the patch.
According to the researchers, the discarded plastics and other debris floats eastward out of countries in Asia from six primary sources: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
[29] In 2017, the Ocean Conservancy reported that China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam dump more plastic in the sea than all other countries combined.
"[35][6]: abs An open access study published in 2022 concluded that 75% up to 86% of the plastic pollution is from fishing and agriculture with most identified emissions originating from Japan, China, South Korea, the US and Taiwan.
In a 2014 study[40] researchers sampled 1571 locations throughout the world's oceans and determined that discarded fishing gear such as buoys, lines and nets accounted for more than 60%[40] of the mass of plastic marine debris.
According to a 2011 EPA report, "The primary source of marine debris is the improper waste disposal or management of trash and manufacturing products, including plastics (e.g., littering, illegal dumping) ... Debris is generated on land at marinas, ports, rivers, harbors, docks, and storm drains.
Floating debris typically is sampled with a neuston or manta trawl net lined with 0.33 mm [0.013 in] mesh.
Long-term changes in plastic meso-litter have been reported using surface net tows: in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in 1999, plastic abundance was 335,000 items per square kilometre (870,000/sq mi) and 5.1 kilograms per square kilometre (29 lb/sq mi), roughly an order of magnitude greater than samples collected in the 1980s.
[53]In August 2009, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography/Project Kaisei SEAPLEX survey mission of the Gyre found that plastic debris was present in 100 consecutive samples taken at varying depths and net sizes along a path of 1,700 miles (2,700 km) through the patch.
In 2015, the organization crossed the Great Pacific garbage patch with 30 vessels, to make observations and take samples with 652 survey nets.
In order to also account for the larger, but more rare debris, they also overflew the patch in 2016 with a C-130 Hercules aircraft, equipped with LiDAR sensors.
Samples collected deeper in the water column found much lower concentrations of plastic particles (primarily monofilament fishing line pieces).
[64] In 2012, researchers Goldstein, Rosenberg and Cheng found that microplastic concentrations in the gyre had increased by two orders of magnitude in the prior four decades.
[65] On 11 April 2013, artist Maria Cristina Finucci founded The Garbage Patch State at UNESCO – Paris[66] in front of Director General Irina Bokova.
[68] In 2010, a conference at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) argued that whilst the patch posed a threat to the living conditions of mankind, it was controllable.
[83] The group expects larger nets to enable it starting in 2024 to remove garbage faster than it is being deposited, and to clean up the entire patch within ten years.
