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Flotsam can be blown by the wind, or follow the flow of ocean currents, often ending up in the middle of oceanic gyres where currents are weakest. Within garbage patches, the waste is not compact, and although most of it is near the surface of the ocean, it can be found up to more than 30 metres (100 ft) deep in the water. [69]
Flotsam can be blown by the wind, or follow the flow of ocean currents, often ending up in the middle of oceanic gyres where currents are weakest. Within garbage patches, the waste is not compact, and although most of it is near the surface of the ocean, it can be found up to more than 30 metres (100 ft) deep in the water. [1]
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 11 December 2024. Large floating field of debris in the North Atlantic Ocean The North Atlantic Gyre is one of five major ocean gyres. The North Atlantic garbage patch is a garbage patch of man-made marine debris found floating within the North Atlantic Gyre, originally documented in 1972. A 22-year ...
During the 5 Gyres expedition, 48 samples were taken from a 2,424 nautical sweep. The researchers found an increase in plastic pollution density, averaging 26,898 particles per square kilometer, but spiking at up to 396,342 particles per square kilometer, peaking near the center of the predicted accumulation zone, [4] with some estimates as high as one million particles per square kilometer.
The gyre contains approximately six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton. [9] A similar patch of floating plastic debris is found in the Atlantic Ocean, called the North Atlantic garbage patch. [10] [11] This growing patch contributes to other environmental damage to marine ecosystems and species.
Plastic pollution was first found in central gyres, or rotating ocean currents in which these observations from the Sargasso Sea were included in the 1972 Journal Science. In 1986, a group of undergraduate students conducted research by recording how much plastic they came across on their ship while traveling across the Atlantic Ocean.
The gyre contains approximately six pounds of plastic for every pound of plankton. [16] A similar patch of floating plastic debris is found in the Atlantic Ocean, called the North Atlantic garbage patch. [17] [18] This growing patch contributes to other environmental damage to marine ecosystems and species.
The most eye-catching evidence of the ocean plastic problem are the garbage patches that accumulate in gyre regions. A gyre is a circular ocean current formed by the Earth's wind patterns and the forces created by the rotation of the planet. [33] There are five main ocean gyres: the North and South Pacific Subtropical Gyres, the North and South ...