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By the end of 2024, the Ocean Cleanup had removed more than one million pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or 0.5% of the total accumulated trash. [7] While microplastics dominate the area by count, 92% of the mass of the patch consists of larger objects which have not yet fragmented into microplastics.
The largest ocean-based source of plastic pollution is discarded fishing gear (including traps and nets), estimated to be up to 90% of plastic debris in some areas. [56] [57] Continental plastic litter enters the ocean largely through storm-water runoff, flowing into watercourses or directly discharged into coastal waters. [58]
The South Pacific garbage patch is an area of ocean with increased levels of marine debris and plastic particle pollution, within the ocean's pelagic zone. This area is in the South Pacific Gyre , which itself spans from waters east of Australia to the South American continent, as far north as the Equator , and south until reaching the ...
While marine pollution can be obvious, as with the marine debris shown above, it is often the pollutants that cannot be seen that cause most harm.. Marine pollution occurs when substances used or spread by humans, such as industrial, agricultural and residential waste, particles, noise, excess carbon dioxide or invasive organisms enter the ocean and cause harmful effects there.
Debris on beach near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Debris collected from beaches on Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals over one month. Researchers classify debris as either land- or ocean-based; in 1991, the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution estimated that up to 80% of the pollution was land-based, [5] with the remaining 20% originating from ...
Denser material that is thought to exist under the surface of the ocean includes plastic called polyethylene terephthalate that is used to make soft drink and water bottles. [6] However, these denser plastics are not observed in the North Atlantic garbage patch because the methods to collect samples only capture the surface microplastics.
Soon after the EPA's founding, the agency dispatched 100 photographers to capture America's environmental problems in a photo project called Documerica.
As of the 2010s, several technical approaches to the mitigation of the growth of space debris are typically undertaken, yet no comprehensive legal regime or cost assignment structure is in place to reduce space debris in the way that terrestrial pollution has reduced since the mid-20th century.