1. Great Garbage Patch Island

2. North Pacific Subtropical Gyre
A gyre is any manner of swirling vortex, particularly large-scale wind and ocean currents.
Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect
The North Pacific Gyre has a clockwise circular pattern
An accumulation of man-made marine debris known as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" is collecting in the gyre.

3. Facts about the Gyre The circulation is slow
The area is an Oceanic Desert, filled with phytoplankton but very few large fish or mammals inhabit the area
Since there are few fish, there are also few fishermen & sailors
There are actually two areas of accumulating debris – the Western Pacific Garbage Patch and the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch which sometimes join to form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

4. This Laysan Albatross chick has been accidentally fed plastic by its parents and died as a result.

5. Albatross Carcass
Bottle caps and other plastic objects are visible inside the decomposed carcass of this Laysan albatross on Kure Atoll, which lies in a remote and virtually uninhabited region of the North Pacific. The bird probably mistook the plastics for food and ingested them while foraging for prey.

6. North Pacific Gyre A 1990 Running shoes spill B 2002 Garbage strip
C Plastic bag spill
D Shoes found
F Eastern Garbage Patch At the eye of the gyre, plastic reaches concentrations of a million pieces per square mile. Researchers have mapped a giant spill of bags and a mile-long strip of wind-driven garbage.
G Caught in a gyre Some of the plastic drifting in the North Pacific is swept to shore, like the thousands of Nike shoes that washed up in the Pacific Northwest. But much is trapped by calm winds and sluggish water within the North Pacific's loop of currents

8. Eastern Garbage Patch Floats between Hawaii and California
Twice as big as Texas
Can be as deep as 30 meters
text 8

9. Oceans of Garbage

10. Trash Monster!! Artist: Keary Sorenson Beach litter collected
October-March 2003
Fort Ross to Rodeo Beach,
California
Jennifer Stock, education and outreach specialist from Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary displays the Trash Monster!
Artist: Keary Sorenson

11. Facts about Plastic in the Gyre
(Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
6 lbs of plastic for each pound of surface zooplankton in the
North Pacific central Gyre
Plastic does not biodegrade; it’s broken down by sunlight into
smaller pieces

12. Algalita Marine Research Foundation
Charles Moore from AMRF first published an article about this global conservation issue in the November 2003 issue of the journal Natural History. The dominant feature in the North Pacific Ocean is the North Pacific Gyre, a large water mass that is rotating in a clockwise direction and can trap debris originating from across the Pacific; floating debris accumulates in the “eastern garbage patch”, an area the size of Texas; there is an estimated ½ lb. of plastic for every 100 m2 of sea surface in this area of marine debris concentration.
“Eastern garbage patch”
Learn more about studies of the Eastern / Western garbage patches conducted by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation

13. How does plastic get into the sea?
1. Littering by beachgoers
2. Run-off from land e.g. rivers and storm drains
3. Direct dumping into the ocean
About 80% of marine debris is from sources on land.
We all share the responsibility for keeping litter, especially plastic litter, from going into the ocean.
4. Accidental loss from ships

14. 90% of floating marine debris is plastic
2.5 cm
1 inch
Marine debris contains many different types of plastic products:
Left photo shows children’s toys; right photo shows plastic pieces and chips of various sizes, plastic bottle caps; hard plastic tubing, fishing floats
Photos: Kathy Cousins / Irene Kinan

15. Where is marine debris found ?
everywhere - both marine and coastal environments
floating
water column
on the seabed
on beaches and shores (
Marine debris is found throughout the ocean and follows many fates.

16. This is a photo of the contents of a dissected bolus
This is a photo of the contents of a dissected bolus. How many plastic items can you identify?
Photo: C. Vanderlip

17. Plastic ingestion What makes seabirds vulnerable?
Another less conspicuous impact of marine debris is plastic ingestion. Seabirds eat plastic. This is a photo of a dead albatross chick with a stomach full of plastic debris – note the amount of bottle caps, the comb, and the toy car wheel.
Photo: Cynthia Vanderlip

18. Acknowledgements & Credits
Primary author: Carol Keiper, Oikonos Ecosystem Knowledge
This presentation is adapted from presentations funded by the California
Coastal Commission’s Whale Tail Grant Program
Contributing authors: Dr. David Hyrenbach, PhD, Duke University; Hannah
Nevins & Michelle Hester, Oikonos-Ecosystem Knowledge; Cheryl Baduini, PhD,
Claremont Colleges; Josh Adams, Moss Landing Marine Laboratories & USGS
Jennifer Stock, Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary; William Henry,
University of California Santa Cruz; Captain Charles Moore, Algalita Marine
Research Foundation
Funding for Black-footed Albatross conservation research provided by National
Fish & Wildlife Foundation
Photos and Slides: P.Pyle, B.Saenz, B.Henry, S.Webb, D.Hyrenbach,
M.Danzenbacher, J.Stock, H. Nevins, J. Adams, J. Harvey, C Vanderlip
K.Cousins, I. Kinan, Myra Finkelstein

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Use Agreement (October 25, 2006)
This material may be viewed and displayed for educational use only.
All images, data, and text have been contributed to Oikonos free of charge to create this product for educational use. Content may be copyrighted and/or owned by individuals and entities other than, and in addition to, Oikonos.
Teachers, educators, researchers and students may incorporate these materials into their lesson plans, presentations, and worksheet in hard copy and digital format for internal educational use only, not into any publication for external distribution.
No organization or person (whether an educational body or not) may incorporate Oikonos material into any media for promotional or commercial purpose whatsoever.
Please contact Oikonos to request further use of any images, data or text included in this presentation – we will contact the contributing authors:
Oikonos – Ecosystem Knowledge
PO Box 1932 Benicia, CA 94510, USA
Phone: