North Atlantic garbage patch

The North Atlantic garbage patch is a large area of floating trash found in the ocean within the North Atlantic Gyre. It was first documented in 1972 and covers hundreds of kilometers. Scientists from the Sea Education Association studied it for 22 years and found that there are more than 200,000 pieces of trash in every square kilometer.

Most of the trash in this patch comes from waste that flows from rivers into the ocean. It is made up mainly of tiny pieces of plastic called microplastics. These pieces of trash can hurt animals and even people by being eaten or getting tangled in the plastic.

So far, there have been only a few efforts to raise awareness and clean up this garbage patch. Examples include The Garbage Patch State at UNESCO and projects by the Ocean Cleanup. However, most of the attention and cleanup work has been on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a similar problem in the north Pacific Ocean.

Characteristics

The North Atlantic garbage patch is a big area of floating trash in the ocean. It stretches from about 22 degrees to 38 degrees north, but its exact edges are not clear. The patch moves up to about 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) north and south depending on the season, and it can move even more during certain weather patterns.

Researchers think the patch is hundreds of kilometers wide, with over 200,000 pieces of trash in every square kilometer. Even though we make much more plastic today than before, the amount of plastic in this patch has not changed much. This might be because the plastic sinks below the surface or breaks into tiny pieces too small for scientists to catch with their nets. Because of this, the real size of the patch might be bigger than we think.