Pacific Garbage
Deadly Debris (1/9)
A dead albatross chick photographed on Midway Atoll, a strip of sand and coral in the North Pacific. These are the actual stomach contents of this baby bird in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries.
All over the Pacific albatross chicks are fed junk by their parents, who mistake pieces of plastic for food and bring them back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year 100,000 baby birds die from starvation, toxicity, and choking. (Photo: Chris Jordan, www.chrisjordan.com)
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Deadly Debris (1/9)
A dead albatross chick photographed on Midway Atoll, a strip of sand and coral in the North Pacific. These are the actual stomach contents of this baby bird in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries.
All over the Pacific albatross chicks are fed junk by their parents, who mistake pieces of plastic for food and bring them back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year 100,000 baby birds die from starvation, toxicity, and choking. (Photo: Chris Jordan, www.chrisjordan.com)
Pacific Garbage
Plague of Plastic (2/9)
A sample of North Pacific Ocean water full of plastic debris held by Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the man who discovered the Pacific Garbage Patch in 1997.
For ten years Algalita has been collecting ocean water samples over thousands of square miles of the North Pacific. Every sample analyzed to date has had plastic in it. Moore reckons that the garbage is doubling in size every decade. (Photo: Matt Cramer for Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
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Plague of Plastic (2/9)
A sample of North Pacific Ocean water full of plastic debris held by Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and the man who discovered the Pacific Garbage Patch in 1997.
For ten years Algalita has been collecting ocean water samples over thousands of square miles of the North Pacific. Every sample analyzed to date has had plastic in it. Moore reckons that the garbage is doubling in size every decade. (Photo: Matt Cramer for Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
Pacific Garbage
World’s Biggest Garbage Dump (3/9)
A map shows the North Pacific Gyre, a vast area of high pressure weather into which ocean currents deposit garbage. The system is circulatory, so junk dumped off the coast of Japan will return there six years later.
“It’s like a toilet bowl: there is a trash vortex and a spiral of debris being scoured from the Pacific Rim,” says Captain Charles Moore. Around 80 percent of the garbage comes from land, and about 65 percent of that is consumer plastics. (Map: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
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World’s Biggest Garbage Dump (3/9)
A map shows the North Pacific Gyre, a vast area of high pressure weather into which ocean currents deposit garbage. The system is circulatory, so junk dumped off the coast of Japan will return there six years later.
“It’s like a toilet bowl: there is a trash vortex and a spiral of debris being scoured from the Pacific Rim,” says Captain Charles Moore. Around 80 percent of the garbage comes from land, and about 65 percent of that is consumer plastics. (Map: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
Pacific Garbage
Death Trap (4/9)
A tangle of discarded fishing nets drifts just below the ocean’s surface. Algalita has noticed that far from land there is a higher proportion of plastic nets and buoys dumped by oceangoing fishing vessels.
Large pieces of plastic can kill by entrapment, suffocation and drowning. They can also transport invasive species from one part of the ocean to another. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
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Death Trap (4/9)
A tangle of discarded fishing nets drifts just below the ocean’s surface. Algalita has noticed that far from land there is a higher proportion of plastic nets and buoys dumped by oceangoing fishing vessels.
Large pieces of plastic can kill by entrapment, suffocation and drowning. They can also transport invasive species from one part of the ocean to another. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
Pacific Garbage
Alien Habitats (5/9)
A tiny crab clings to the side of a plastic bottle top. Plastic can be a magnet for life. A bacterial film forms on the object, then algae appears and an artificial habitat is formed. Algalita has found fishing buoys with coral and barnacles growing on them, and fish living inside bottles.
These alien habitats, however, attract invasive species that compete for food with the original inhabitants. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
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Alien Habitats (5/9)
A tiny crab clings to the side of a plastic bottle top. Plastic can be a magnet for life. A bacterial film forms on the object, then algae appears and an artificial habitat is formed. Algalita has found fishing buoys with coral and barnacles growing on them, and fish living inside bottles.
These alien habitats, however, attract invasive species that compete for food with the original inhabitants. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
Pacific Garbage
The Wrong Bait (6/9)
Small bait fish shoal near the surface of the ocean. Billions of tiny fish that provide food for the larger ocean species that we eat are consuming ever greater amounts of indigestible plastic instead of plankton.
On a 2009 research trip, Algalita found 84 particles of plastic in one fish about the size of a human finger. “That is a dead end, and we foresee a species crash,” says Captain Charles Moore. (Photo: Shuttterstock)
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The Wrong Bait (6/9)
Small bait fish shoal near the surface of the ocean. Billions of tiny fish that provide food for the larger ocean species that we eat are consuming ever greater amounts of indigestible plastic instead of plankton.
On a 2009 research trip, Algalita found 84 particles of plastic in one fish about the size of a human finger. “That is a dead end, and we foresee a species crash,” says Captain Charles Moore. (Photo: Shuttterstock)
Pacific Garbage
Sail with Care! (7/9)
A plastic briefcase scooped out of the ocean by the Algalita research ship in 2008. Repeatedly smashing his boat into larger debris and snagging on fishing nets has persuaded Captain Moore that his 2009 research voyage will be the last. The garbage is simply too dense and dangerous. “The stuff is so bad now that I fear for the safety of my crew and my vessel. I am not going back,” he says. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
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Sail with Care! (7/9)
A plastic briefcase scooped out of the ocean by the Algalita research ship in 2008. Repeatedly smashing his boat into larger debris and snagging on fishing nets has persuaded Captain Moore that his 2009 research voyage will be the last. The garbage is simply too dense and dangerous. “The stuff is so bad now that I fear for the safety of my crew and my vessel. I am not going back,” he says. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
Pacific Garbage
Junk Beach (8/9)
Kamilo Beach on the southern tip of the island of Hawaii. It is known as ‘junk beach’ because so much debris washes up on it. The Hawaiian Ocean Preserve has to clean up 52 tons of junk a year from its coastlines.
Ocean storms sweep junk out of the garbage gyre and onto beaches on Pacific islands and the Japanese and Philippine archipelagos, where they disfigure both the scenery and wildlife. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
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Junk Beach (8/9)
Kamilo Beach on the southern tip of the island of Hawaii. It is known as ‘junk beach’ because so much debris washes up on it. The Hawaiian Ocean Preserve has to clean up 52 tons of junk a year from its coastlines.
Ocean storms sweep junk out of the garbage gyre and onto beaches on Pacific islands and the Japanese and Philippine archipelagos, where they disfigure both the scenery and wildlife. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
Pacific Garbage
Can We Cleanup? (9/9)
Los Angeles public works department removes garbage caught by booms from the Los Angeles River after a storm washed the junk upstream. Some people have suggested cleanup operations like this could be attempted at sea.
However, the area to be cleaned is vast and most of the plastic is simply too small to be scooped up. And not all of it is on or near the surface. Plastic contaminates the entire water column right down to the seabed. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
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Can We Cleanup? (9/9)
Los Angeles public works department removes garbage caught by booms from the Los Angeles River after a storm washed the junk upstream. Some people have suggested cleanup operations like this could be attempted at sea.
However, the area to be cleaned is vast and most of the plastic is simply too small to be scooped up. And not all of it is on or near the surface. Plastic contaminates the entire water column right down to the seabed. (Photo: Algalita Marine Research Foundation)
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