User:Mtran428/sandbox

North Atlantic Garbage Patch Outline

 * 1) History [new][to be revised and updated by Maddy Tran]
 * 2) * Now Atlantic is found to have huge 'garbage patch'
 * 3) * Plastic rubbish blights Atlantic Ocean
 * 4) * Origin, dynamics and evolution of ocean garbage patches from observed surface drifters
 * 5) * FAQ: Plastic debris in the ocean
 * 6) * Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre
 * 7) * How Bad Is the Plastic Pollution in the Atlantic?
 * 8) Research [existing][to be revised and updated by Alyssa Ishigo]
 * 9) * Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre
 * 10) * UH Mānoa scientist predicts plastic garbage patch in Atlantic Ocean
 * 11) * Massive North Atlantic Garbage Patch Mapped
 * 12) * Scientists map North Atlantic garbage patch
 * 13) Effect on Wildlife and Humans [existing][to be revised and updated by Stephanie Kehoe]
 * 14) * Where Has All the Plastic Gone?
 * 15) * The Dirt on Ocean Garbage Patches
 * 16) * Marine Plastics
 * 17) * The Effects of Plastic Pollution on Aquatic Wildlife: Current Situations and Future Solutions
 * 18) Awareness and Clean-Up Efforts [existing][to be revised and updated by Alyssa Ishigo]
 * 19) * The Garbage Patch in the Oceans: The Problem and Possible Solutions

Size and Location
The patch is located from 22°N to 38°N and its western and eastern boundaries are unclear. The patch is estimated to be hundreds of kilometers across in size,[cite from original lead section] with a density of over 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometer (one piece per five square metres, on average). The debris zone shifts by as much as 1,600 km (990 mi) north and south seasonally, and drifts even farther south during the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, according to the NOAA.[cite from original lead section]

The concentration of plastic in the North Atlantic garbage patch has stayed mostly constant even though the global plastic production has had a five-fold increase over the 22 year study. The reason for this is that the plastic may be sinking or breaking down into smaller pieces that can pass through the net.

Research
A joint study by the Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the University of Hawai’i at Manoa collected plastic samples in the western North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea from 1986 to 2008. Nearly 7,000 students from the SEA semester program conducted 6,136 surface plankton nets onboard SEA’s sailing research vessels over 22 years, yielding more than 64,000 plastic pieces. Nikolai Maximenko of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu developed a computer model to describe how plastics are accumulated from converging surface currents to form garbage patches. The model uses data from over 1,600 satellite-tracked trajectories of drifting buoys to map out surface currents. The plastic data collected by the students at SEA validated Maximenko’s model, and researchers were able to successfully predict the plastic accumulation in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Plastic Consumption
With the increased amount of plastic in the ocean, living organisms are now at a greater risk of harm from plastic consumption and entanglement. Approximately 23% of aquatic mammals, and 36% of seabirds have experienced the detriments of plastic presence in the ocean [13]. Since as much as 70% of the trash in garbage patch is estimated to be on the ocean floor, and microplastics are only millimeters wide, sealife at nearly every level of the food chain is affected. Animals who feed off of the bottom of the ocean risk sweeping microplastics into their systems while gathering food [12]. Smaller marine life such as mussels and worms sometimes mistake plastic for their prey [11] [13]. Larger animals are also affected by plastic consumption because they feed on fish, and  are indirectly consuming microplastics already trapped inside their prey [12]. Likewise, humans are also susceptible to microplastic consumption. People who eat seafood also eat some of the microplastics that were ingested by marine life. Oysters and clams are popular vehicles for human microplastic consumption [12].Animals who are within the general vicinity of the water are also affected by the plastic in the ocean. Studies have shown 36% species of seabirds are consuming plastic because they mistake larger pieces of plastic for their next meal [13]. Plastic can cause blockage of intestines as well as tearing of interior stomach and intestinal lining of marine life ultimately leading to starvation and death [13].

Entanglement
Not all marine life is affected by the consumption of plastic. Some instead find themselves tangled in larger pieces of garbage that cause just as much harm as the barely visible microplastics. Trash that has the possibility of wrapping itself around a living organism may cause strangulation or drowning [13]. If the trash gets stuck around a ligament that is not vital for airflow, the ligament may grow with a malformation [13]. Plastic’s existence in the ocean becomes cyclical because marine life that is killed by ultimately decompose in the ocean, re-releasing the plastics into the ecosystem.

Awareness and Clean-Up Efforts
Few cleanup efforts have been made to clean up the North Atlantic Garbage Patch, as cleaning up the microplastics  “would likely cause as much harm as good because of all the other small creatures in the ocean that would get filtered out too”. {On 11 April 2013...and action}

Dutch inventor Boyan Slat and his nonprofit organization The Ocean Cleanup is developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. Cleanup is planned to start in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch first, and eventually move around to the other four patches across the globe. Aside from cleaning the microplastics from the oceans, the Ocean Cleanup is also developing technologies to remove larger pieces of plastic from rivers, which are largely attributed as the main sources of plastic in the ocean.