Hello there my friends! I have a lot of testing around this time so I haven't been very active at all since about February or so. I apologize but I will be more active now, no worries! Anyhow, I was reading some passages and being the easily distracted person I am, I got interested in the GPGP (Great Pacific Garbage Patch) which was one of the things we were reading about. I thought it was the perfect excuse to write a Times article so here's some information about it!
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch lays between the 2 states of Hawaii and California, nearly 2 times the size of Texas and 5 times the size of Illinois. It is filled with plastic, chemicals, etc. The human eye and satellite photography are not able to see the Garbage Patch. Scientists in 1988 actually predicted it because of the ocean currents in that specific area going in circular motions. The estimated size of the patch is 700,000 square kilometers to more than 15,000,000 square kilometers.
Mainly I'm concerned because scientists estimate fish eat roughly 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic a year from this area. Many of the fish ingesting the plastic are lanternfish. Not only is this harmful to the fish but many humans eat the fish that digests the trash and it affects them too.
These are only some of the ways the GPGP is harmful and the saddest part is that there's no way to clean it up so the only thing we can do is try to stop more waste from joining in and making it even bigger than it already is. If you want to find out more information on this, you can just type it up any time your free.
-iSprig
Author's Note: Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_garbage_patch
science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/oceanography/great-pacific-garbage-patch.htm
www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/fish-ingesting-plastic-from-great-pacific-garbage-patch
