great pacific garbage patch
WATCH: Oceans polluted with plastic
Michael Holmes speaks to Joost Dubois with The Ocean Cleanup about their efforts to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an area about three times the size of France.
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Copyright: KajaNi |
Boyan Slat: Humanity is addicted to plastic, but we can still keep it out of our oceans
LISTEN: The man who discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is still trying to stop ocean pollution
In 1997, Captain Charles Moore first discovered the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” the largest accumulation of plastic waste in the ocean. Since then, scientists have documented how plastic has permanently damaged marine ecosystems and even altered evolution — and the problem has only grown larger.
Animals are migrating to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
There's so much plastic floating on the ocean surface, it's spawning new marine communities
The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, otherwise known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," is considered the world's largest accumulation of ocean plastic. It's so massive, in fact, that researchers found it has been colonized by species — hundreds of miles away from their natural home.