The Pacific

Garbage Patch

AB0847058

http://www.greece-map.net/north-america/north-america-map.gif

Brief Information The Pacific Garbage Patch has been around for

more than fifty years. Over that time period, more than one million pounds of garbage has collected in the North Pacific gyre.

The Pacific Garbage Patch has grown to be almost double the size of Texas.

The garbage, plastic, and plastic particles that make up the gyre endanger the sea life that surround it on a daily basis.

Link to YouTube video “Garbage Island”http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt-MivNezes&feature=related

Plastic to Garbage Ratio

Wildlife Affected The Albatross is a type of bird

that is known to be a scavenger, and feeds whatever it finds to its young-garbage, plastic, etc.

Almost half of Albatross chicks have died from consuming plastic and garbage fed to them by their parents.

This specie of bird is slowly going to become extinct if this garbage chaos continues.

The Albatross are one of many species in danger of the Pacific Garbage Patch.

http://www.mountaininterval.org/photos/images/18-roll/15-falklands-steeple-albatross-and-chick.jpg

ALBATROSS

Pacific Garbage Patch compared to Texas

www.locallender.info http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Trashing-Oceans-Plastic4nov02.GIF

Where the Garbage comes from

Plastic Plastic does not biodegrade, it

photodegrades. This is a process by which plastic is broken down by sunlight into smaller pieces, but still remains plastic. The problem with this is that there is so much plastic floating in the Pacific Garbage Patch that it breaks down into such small pieces that it would be almost impossible to retrieve. The worst part being that it sinks to the ocean floor, and becomes more edible for smaller aquatic life.

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=Water Bottle&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Chain Effect

http://i.pbase.com/u49/rtwo/large/40835063.AcquariumII.jpg

http://www.littlecatzhome.net/chongter/Articles/life/Plastic/01.jpg

http://www.helixcharter.net/department_sites/socialscience/honors_geo/student%20w

ork/Period%203%20websites/3moldewatpol/images/plastic%20ocean%20trash.jpg

Floating garbage is consumed by jelly fish and other organisms, which in turn is consumed by the fish that we eat.

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://bp2.blogger.com/_m8XL235t5cM/R44JcafhPqI/AAAAAAAAAZo/kJ49xKS2Jag/s320/Human%2BBody%2BOutline.jpg&imgrefurl=http://darthbode.blogspot.com/2008/01/

true.html&h=320&w=177&sz=8&hl=en&start=17&um=1&usg=__Vyp598gI51Ep6pWA8o66mIZz68Q=&tbnid=jD3frhq-uMTw6M:&tbnh=118&tbnw=65&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhuman%2Bbody%2Boutline%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26channel%3Ds%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DG

Works Cited1. “Moore.” Mindfully. 27 October 2002. 22

September 2008 http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Pacific-Garbage-Patch27oct02.htm

2. Silverman, Jacob. “Why is the world’s biggest landfill in the ocean?.” 19 September 2007. HowStuffWorks.com http://www.science.howstuffworks.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm 22 September 2008