Earth's Eighth Continent

Few visitors The cause for the Patch's relative lack of acknowledgment is that the portion of the Pacific it occupies is almost entirely unvisited. It lacks the wind to attract sailing vessels, the biology to encourage fishing, and is not in the path of major shipping lanes. What little air movement there is blows inwards, further trapping the garbage. According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Marcus Eriksen, a director at the Algatita Marine Research Foundation, said that "with the winds blowing in and the currents in the gyre going circular, it's the perfect environment for trapping." While the trash is in the ocean, it is doing what could be irreparable harm to sea life, the water it's in, and eventually humans. Plastic resists biodegrading. Instead, a plastic shopping bag or pop bottle will photo-degrade over time, meaning that it will break down into smaller and smaller pieces but retain its original molecular composition. The result is a great amount of fine plastic sand that resembles food to many creatures. Unfortunately, the plastic cannot be digested, so sea birds or fish can eventually starve to death with a stomach full of plastic. Even if the amount of plastic in a creature's body is not enough to block the passage of food, the small pellets act as sponges for several toxins, concentrating chemicals such as DDT to 1 million times the normal level. This concentration then works its way up the food chain until a fish is served at our dinner table. http://thetyee.ca/News/2007/11/21/PacificGarbagePatch/ [Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on November 29, 2007]

Note: http://thetyee.ca/News/...