Where is it?
Garbage Island is located in the North Pacific Gyre, one of the five great ocean gyres.
How big is it?
Its dimensions exceed three times the size of France. So far, it is estimated that the extension is 1.6 million km
Why is it there?
Its formation is due to the action of oceanic gyres, which causes the accumulation of garbage from all over the world for a long time in extensive floating rafts, known as islands. Specifically, the turns correspond to systems of rotating currents, which are also driven by the winds.
.What can we basically see on that patch?
While there are species of algae, crustaceans, and fish that thrive in the floating garbage-like microhabitats, no information has been obtained on any species that thrive in the great garbage patch in the Pacific.
How easy or difficult can it be to dissolve it?
In 2008, Richard Owen, a construction contractor and diving instructor, formed the Enviromental Cleanup Coalition to join the North Pacific pollution cause. The ECC (acronym in English) plans to modify a fleet of ships to clean up the waste from the area to restore and recycle it. The laboratory created for this purpose is called Gyre Island
What effect does it have on marine life?
Larger fragments kill marine life by trapping fish and other animals, such as turtles. This phenomenon is called, by the scientific community, "ghost fishing"
.What effect does it have on human life?
These residues have direct consequences in our environment since they contaminate the marine fauna that ingest these microparticles as food and, consequently, they become absorbed by humans when consuming these animals.
.What effect does it have on human life?
These residues have direct consequences in our environment since they contaminate the marine fauna that ingest these microparticles as food and, consequently, they become absorbed by humans when consuming these animals.
Any interesting extra info?
What are plastic islands? In the world there are, as of today, seven and they are the result of the 8 million tons of waste (according to the most recent estimate) that invades the seas and oceans. They are floating dumps for waste and debris that accumulate and become trapped in aquatic vortices, even for several years. These islands are made up of debris of various sizes, but mostly billions of microscopic plastic fragments, which are scattered everywhere, from the surface to the bottom of the sea.