The Accumulation Of Plastics In The World's 5 Gyres And How It Can Be Stopped - Essay Example

The scale of plastic contamination found in the ocean water is immense. Epic amount of plastic debris has been observed floating on the ocean water beginning from the polar areas to the equator zone. The only solution to the issue is to stop dumping plastic waste in to the sea and minimize the use of plastic by switching to other alternatives where ever possible so that least plastic waste is produced. The disposal of plastic is immensely a problematic issue since much of it have been accumulating in to the enormous islands in the oceans, or gyres that are further continuing to accumulate or disintegrate in to several tiny pieces due to which sea creatures and people consume these plastic debris as we eat the marine animals.

It was shocking to get to know that there are five such gyres of plastic accumulate, which is extremely hazardous for both the marine and the land habitat. Numerous marine animals die every year due to the pollution in ocean as they either ingest or get entangled in marine debris that is the waste disposed by us in to the rivers, oceans and other water ways. A vast portion of this waste reaches the seas through the rivers. Almost 80 percent of the trash emanates from the landfills as well as from other urban sources.

This waste then accumulates in gyres that are the areas of low winds and slow spiraling water along the coastlines. The fishes consume this waste, the sharks and other marine animals get entangled in it and the coral reefs get damaged by it. This immensely destroys the marine life. There exist five major ocean gyres in the entire world, which are namely: North Pacific Gyre, South Pacific Gyre, North Atlantic Gyre, South Atlantic Gyre and Indian Ocean Gyre. The sailors and the fishermen conventionally avoid these gyres since they are bereaved of wind and marine creatures.

The North Pacific Gyre in the Pacific Ocean possess the largest portion of the plastic accumulate than the rest of the gyres. It is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as it covers a massive area that is almost equal to the size of the Texas. The plastic debris extends to about 6 meters or 20 feet down in to the water column (Robards et al, 1997). It has been found that about 3.5 million tons of waste has been deposited to this area turning it in to a plastic island (Thiel et al, 2003). It has been estimated that this size would get double in the next 5 years (Thiel et al., 2003). According to the estimates by the researchers, there is about 6 kg or 13.

2 pounds of plastic for every 1 kg or 2.2 pounds of plankton in this area (Moore, et al., 2001). Some researchers and scientists consider that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a misnomer for the floating pile of disposed-waste that is located between the Hawaiian and Oregon islands suggesting that massive amount waste should be managed. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch basically indicates an environmental disaster for the oceans of the world that opens the eyes of the people of the world towards the intense need for the conservation policies taking the oceans in to account.

This patch of waste was created and continued to exist due to the ocean currents. Actually, this patch is not static in position as it sometimes drifts in to masses of land that have now appeared to resemble landfills. The patch moves with the zone of high pressure of air that is known as the North Pacific