Not only is there a floating, swirling, mass of toxic garbage twice the size of Texas drifting in the Pacific Ocean, but there it is growing over the years. A research team, published by the New York Times has found that "water samples from February contained twice as much plastic as samples from a decade ago." Mr. Moore, the man who discovered the garbage in 1999 while sailing from Hawaii, came back and told reporters: "This is not the garbage patch I knew in 1999. This is a totally different animal.”
Currently, there are fish and ocean life living in the middle of the pollution and feeding off of plankton that is growing directly on the garbage. The fish that ingest these plankton also ingest small pieces of plastic and toxic chemicals. The second concern is for the predators of these fish and the predators of those predators. All these toxic chemicals will be transferred from one fish to another and possibly to your local grocery store.
Now the real scare is that this garbage patch is only one of FIVE that may be trapped in gyres around the world. Ponder that for a while.
Currently, there are fish and ocean life living in the middle of the pollution and feeding off of plankton that is growing directly on the garbage. The fish that ingest these plankton also ingest small pieces of plastic and toxic chemicals. The second concern is for the predators of these fish and the predators of those predators. All these toxic chemicals will be transferred from one fish to another and possibly to your local grocery store.
Now the real scare is that this garbage patch is only one of FIVE that may be trapped in gyres around the world. Ponder that for a while.
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