Thanks to our beautiful ocean currents (and humans with their non-biodegradable plastic) there is a large patch of rubbish accumulating in the Pacific Ocean. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

How embarrassing that humans are living in squalor! If aliens were to land and see what we’ve done to our natural environment… I can just hear them saying, “My, my. Didn’t anyone tell you not to s*** where you eat?”.

The Great Pacific Garbage patch was first described in 1988 and it is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic on Earth. It has now grown to be THREE TIMES the size of France, ie. 1.6 million square kilometres. It has gradually grown and continues to grow as the currents and winds push the debris towards this part of the ocean.

Without intervention marine life will continue to suffer and perish.

All of the plastic consumed on Earth has the potential to be swept into the ocean via various routes. Instead of degrading like your usual run-of-the-mill biodegradable product, plastic breaks down into smaller pieces of plastic. Which turns out to be EVEN WORSE. The plastic situation doesn’t get better over time and action must be taken to improve this predicament.

The plastic pollution floating through the ocean habitats also spreads disease and is damaging some very delicate ecosystems. For more information on how plastic is transmitting disease through our oceans see my post here.

Without intervention marine life will continue to suffer and perish as their stomachs fill with plastic. Habitat destruction can be devastating as there are far reaching effects leading to loss of entire species as well as resources.

The key message to learn from this mistake of ours is to reduce our personal plastic consumption to decrease our impact on these delicate habitats.

We’re all in this together.

Featured image credit: By vaidehi shah from Singapore – Litter on Singapore’s ECP, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56641266