How does the great Pacific garbage patch affect sea birds and animals?

Answer 1

Plastic bottles and bags dumped from ships and from storm water drains and rivers float in the oceans and the wind and currents bring them all to this great revolving Pacific Gyre. Plastic ropes and discarded fishing nets are part of it too. Scientists estimate that there is around three million tons of plastic debris there.

The sun and the oceans have broken the plastic down. As the plastic degrades it releases many toxins which get into the food chain. It also breaks up into tiny pieces which are attractive to sea birds and marine creatures. This plastic junk builds up in their stomachs till they die. Some of the particles are microscopic and filter feeders like whales are swallowing them.

"Ghost fishing" from thrown away nets are still trapping fish and marine animals. An estimated 100,000 turtles and other animals die each year, and more than one million birds.

Studies have found that even barnacles are eating tiny shreds of plastic.

A:Discovered in 1997, by an American oceanographer named Charles Moore, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is composed largely of a combination of different types of plastic, and other articles of trash floating out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There are actually several garbage patches, but the in the pacific ocean there are two. There is an Eastern and Western Pacific Garbage Patch. They are also connected by an ocean current and pick up trash from all over the world. The Western Garbage Patch is located between Japan and Hawaii. It is somewhat smaller than the one in question here, which is the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, located between California and Hawaii.

The Eastern Garbage Patch has been described as being very large, and compared to the size of the state of Texas; which is one of largest states, if not the largest state, located in the United States. Large circular ocean currents called a gyre hold the trash accumulations.