North Atlantic garbage patch

The North Atlantic Gyre is one of five major ocean gyres.

The North Atlantic garbage patch is a garbage patch of man-made marine debris found floating within the North Atlantic Gyre, originally documented in 1972.[1] A 22-year research study conducted by the Sea Education Association estimates the patch to be hundreds of kilometers across, with a density of more than 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometer.[2][3][4][5] The garbage originates from human-created waste traveling from rivers into the ocean and mainly consists of microplastics.[6] The garbage patch is a large risk to wildlife (and to humans) through plastic consumption and entanglement.[7]

There have only been a few awareness and clean-up efforts for the North Atlantic garbage patch, such as The Garbage Patch State at UNESCO and The Ocean Cleanup, as most of the research and cleanup efforts have been focused on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a similar garbage patch in the north Pacific.[8][9]

  1. ^ Carpenter, E.J.; Smith, K.L. (1972). "Plastics on the Sargasso Sea Surface, in Science". Science. 175 (4027): 1240–1241. doi:10.1126/science.175.4027.1240. PMID 5061243. S2CID 20038716.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference manoa.hawaii.edu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Gorman, Steve (4 August 2009). "Scientists study huge ocean garbage patch". Perthnow.com.au. Archived from the original on 29 January 2011. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  4. ^ "Scientists find giant plastic rubbish dump floating in the Atlantic". Perthnow.com.au. 26 February 2010. Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  5. ^ Gill, Victoria (24 February 2010). "Plastic rubbish blights Atlantic Ocean". BBC News. Archived from the original on 27 August 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Orcutt-2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Sigler, Michelle (18 October 2014). "The Effects of Plastic Pollution on Aquatic Wildlife: Current Situations and Future Solutions". Water, Air, & Soil Pollution. 225 (11): 2184. Bibcode:2014WASP..225.2184S. doi:10.1007/s11270-014-2184-6. ISSN 1573-2932. S2CID 51944658.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference unesco.org-2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference The Ocean Cleanup-2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).