![]() The International Union for Conservation of Nature has stated that at least 14 million tonnes of plastic end up in the ocean every year. The cause of the ‘patch’ is the world’s high and unnecessary plastic use and more so, the methods of disposing these plastics. Oceans across the world is full of garbage - ranging from microscopic pieces of plastic to larger objects such as fishing nets and buoys. ![]() However, these percentages vary - a 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Experts state that 80 per cent of the plastic in the patch comes from land-based sources while the remaining comes from boats and other marine sources. That’s because not all of the plastic is visible and it is just too large to trawl. While there are estimates of the patch containing 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic, no one knows just how much debris makes up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. ![]() Crossing the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, Moore and his crew noticed millions of pieces of plastic surrounding his ship.Īlso read: Around the world, bottled water sales are soaring: Here’s why that is a big worry Moore was sailing from Hawaii to California after competing in a yachting race. It also said to weigh seven million tonnes.Ī National Geographic report states that while oceanographers and climatologists predicted the existence of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it was a racing boat captain by the name of Charles Moore who actually discovered the trash vortex. To put that in perspective, it is thrice the size of France. Conservationists and experts state that it is about 1.6 million square kilometres in size.
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