How Big Is the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch"? Science vs.

Myth
Remains of dead baby albatrosses on a beach
with plastic debris.
The remains of dead baby albatrosses reveal the
far-reaches of plastic pollution on Midway Atoll,
2000 miles from any mainland. Credit: Chris
Jordan, from his series "Midway: Message from
the Gyre." Used under Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works
3.0 United States License.

UPDATED FEBRUARY 7, 2013 -- While everything may be bigger in Texas, some reports about
the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" would lead you to believe that this marine mass of plastic is
bigger than Texas—maybe twice as big as the Lone Star State, or even twice as big as the
continental U.S.
For NOAA, a national science agency, separating science from science fiction about the Pacific
garbage patch (and other "garbage patches") is important when answering people's questions
about what it is and how we should deal with the problem.
(For the record, no scientifically sound estimates exist for the size or mass of these garbage
patches.)
The NOAA Marine Debris Program's Carey Morishige takes down two myths floating around with
the rest of the debris about the garbage patches in a recent post on the Marine Debris Blog:
There is no "garbage patch," a name which conjures images of a floating landfill in the middle of
the ocean, with miles of bobbing plastic bottles and rogue yogurt cups. Morishige explains this
misnomer:
While it's true that these areas have a higher concentration of plastic than other parts of the ocean,

much of the debris found in these areas are small bits of plastic (microplastics) that are suspended
throughout the water column. A comparison I like to use is that the debris is more like flecks of
pepper floating throughout a bowl of soup, rather than a skim of fat that accumulates (or sits) on
the surface.
She's not downplaying the significance of microplastics. They are nearly ubiquitous today—
degrading into tiny bits from a range of larger plastic items [PDF] and now turning up in everything
from face scrubs to fleece jackets—and their impacts on marine life mostly remain a big unknown.
There are many "garbage patches," and by that, we mean that trash congregates to various
degrees in numerous parts of the Pacific and the rest of the ocean. These natural gathering points
appear where rotating currents, winds, and other ocean features converge to accumulate marine
debris, as well as plankton, seaweed, and other sea life. (Find out more about these "convergence
zones" in the ocean and a NOAA study of the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone [PDF].)
Any way you look at these "peppery soups" of plastic in the Pacific, none of the debris should be
there. The NOAA Marine Debris website and blog have lots of great information and references if
you want to learn more about the garbage patch issue.
QUESTIONS:
1. Do you think it is more or less dangerous for sea life, that what are called garbage patches
are really areas that have a large proportion of floating microscopic plastic accumulating
with other marine debris in areas where sea life gather to find food? Explain your answer.
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More information can be found at http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/how-big-great-

pacific-garbage-patch-science-vs-myth.html