Garbage Patches

What are they?

Garbage Patches are the areas on the surface of the ocean where garbage gathers by swirling ocean currents called gyres. Gyres "gather" all the debris in their centers, forming patches. There are 5 patches in the world ocean. Two of them are located in the Pacific Ocean, two - in the Atlantic, and one - in the Indian Ocean. The patches do not appear carpeted with garbage as could be thought; they are located in the body of water. Depending on gyres, the patches are changing in size and shape. Some of the debris sink to the seafloor. Other is so small (microscopic) that you cannot see it from the surface of the ocean.

The Garbage Patch in the North Pacific is actually three areas of garbage in the North Pacific Gyre (see image below)

^{Image from}^NOAA^{: The image shows a map of the Northern Pacific Ocean with lines indicating the North Pacific Gyre. Western and Eastern Pacific Patches are labeled and indicated with colorful dots. The Eastern Garbage Patch is also labeled the North Pacific Subtropical High. Also labeled is the Subtropical Convergence Zone shown in the North-central portion of the North Pacific Gyre. Garbage is also shown in colorful dots in the area. The Western Garbage Patch is shown just East of Kuroshio. The Eastern Garbage Patch is shown just West of California. The bottom right corner includes a}^{Marine Debris NOAA}^.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

One of the most notorious patches is the Great Pacific Patch, which is located between California and Hawaii. Watch the video to learn about patches and the Pacific Path in particular.

Video from NOAA: Ocean Today: Trash Talk: What Is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Why are they so hard to deal with?

The extremely large areas of ocean covered by garbage patches makes them extremely costly to clean up. It would take fleets of ships and years to skim even small areas of the garbage patches, and even then, much of the pollution within these patches are due to microplastic particles that are extremely difficult to filter out of water. When you realize that the same system of currents that accumulate garbage within the patches also cause the accumulation of nutrients and an associated density of pelagic wildlife, the dangers that a filtering process could have upon the environment become clear. Cleaning the garbage patches in such a way could easily cause more environmental harm than leaving them be.

Patches sometimes gather debris to bigger floating islands as could be seen from the picture below.

Image from the University of Colorado Boulder: The image shows a zigzag line of debris on the surface of the ocean that lasts until the horizon. Most likely, it was taken from a ship, not a satellite. The debris is mostly in white color and is difficult to identify.