Hello Kids! Once again welcome to KidsCast! As all of you know we humans produce tons and tons of garbage everyday and most of the cleaning authorities dump it in the land or throw it in the water bodies but do you all know that there is now an island formed in Pacific ocean which is completely made up of garbage! Doesn't it sound surprising! But today we will learn more about it.Exact location
Now you all would be thinking where is it actually!! Don't worry I will tell you now. It is located in the Central North Pacific ocean. Approximately it is located from 135°W to 155°W and 35°N to 42°N. Don't think that it is confusing. Here's a map which you can understand.
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| Location of The Great Pacific Garbage Patch |
As you see in the map it is located near USA. It is also called Pacific Trash Vortex. But the one in the image is the Eastern Garbage Patch. But there is also a Western Garbage Patch which is near Japan. Here is another map which shows the location of both of them.
Map showing both the garbage patches
Do you see the The Subtropical Covergence Zone? At that place The Arctic ocean and Pacific ocean meet so this place is like a railway line! Are you thinking why I called it as a railway line? If yes, then at this place the garbage from Eastern and Western Patches exchange takes place. This means that Western Patch sends its garbage towards Eastern Patch and vice versa.
History
This patch was first described in 1988 but not found, when a newspaper was published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But the patch exactly was found in 1997 when Charles Moore found it! The description was based on a research by several Alaska-coming researchers in 1988 who measured the quantity of neustonic plastic in the North Pacific Ocean. These researchers found very high concentrations of marine garbage which accumulated in regions administered by ocean currents.
Sources of forming
In 2015, a research was published in the Journal of Science which discovered where exactly all of the garbage was coming from. According to the researchers, the unused plastic and other garbage which floated eastward out of 6 countries in Asia which are: China, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Even the Ocean Conservancy reported that China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam dump more plastic in the water bodies compared to all other countries. China alone dumps 30% of worldwide plastic water pollution.
The Decreasing Marine Life
The United Nations Ocean Conference said that approximately by the year 2050 oceans might contain more weight of plastics compared to fishes. Some plastics are eaten by the water animals. Plastic attracts seabirds and fish because of its glossy looks. When sea animals consume plastic, it enters the food chain of the marine life, this can lead to larger problems when animals that have consumed plastic are eaten up by there predators. Plastic pollution affects at least 700 marine life species, which includes sea turtles, seals, sea lions, seabirds, fish, whales and dolphins. Cetaceans have been seen in the patch, whose entanglement risks the animals which use the Great Pacific garbage patch as a migration centre or as there shelter.
Clean Drive would make a country lose all money!
Clean Drive could make a country lose all its money because the Patch is huge! I will tell you about the size in the next paragraph but for now we will take it as huge and the founder of the patch was .............. you guess! Yes we wrote it above and he was Charles Moore who himself said that because patch does not touch any country's coastline so firstly no country will be ready to take a clean drive because it could make a country bankrupt! But many organizations in the world now who sees ocean conservation, demand for the clean drive and are ready for the financial help too! But the problem is that it is not easy not at all! Because there are very tiny plastic pieces whose size is equall to small fishes living in the ocean! As nets will not only capture garbage but also these small animals. Because its huge too so a research said that it would take approximately 67 ships per year for cleaning the patch with less than 2%!!! Won't that litreally make a country super poor!
Size
As I said in the earlier paragraph about the size so yes in this paragraph I will tell you about the size of the patch. It is more than 3 times of France or 2 times the size of Texas! To be more accurate it is approximately 1.6 million square kilometers. It streches upto 617,000 square miles. Do you recall that 1 mile = around 1.60 km! Calculate the stretch in kilometeres is a small activity, do it for fun!
So, did you enjoy the post and feel that how human are doing inhumanity towards marine waters and marine life! So next time you see anyone throwing garbage here and there or see biodegradable garbage being thrown away tell them to put it in dustbin and also tell them to use it as a natural manure! For now bye Happy Learning!
Stay Safe and Stay Healthy!
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