The North Pacific Gyre, an area in the Pacific Ocean that has recently been referred to as a plastic soup twice the size of Texas, is a haunting metaphor for a very real environmental catastrophe. Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation, believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region.

The North Pacific Gyre is a vast expanse of debris that is held in place by underwater currents. It extends from about 500 nautical miles off the California coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii, and nearly to Japan.

For over ten years, Algalita’s scientists have been studying plastic marine debris in the North Pacific Gyre. Dr. Marcus Ericson and Joel Paschal have just recently embarked on a voyage to spread awareness about the perils of plastic debris: something they hope to accomplish aboard “Junk”, a raft constructed out of 20,000 plastic bottles and a Cessna 310.

Two Save Our Shores staff members, Aleah Lawrence-Pine and Emily Glanville were able to sail aboard the Alguita, the chief Algalita research vessel in order to tow the “Junk” raft out of the Long Beach harbor and past Catalina Island into safer waters for its launch. The “Junk” will be out at sea for another two months, covering a total distance of 2,100 miles. Dr. Erikson and Paschal will be compiling further research on the extent of the plastic accumulation in the Gyre.

Ten years of research has exposed the Gyre as one of the greatest environmental catastrophes of our time. Findings suggest exponential increases in the quantity of plastic debris, a trend that has far reaching consequences.

Plastics enter the ocean in a number of different ways, though 60-80% of marine debris originated from a land-based source. The majority of plastic floats near the surface where birds and fish mistake it for food. Research indicates that plastic pieces can attract and hold hydrophobic elements like PCB and DDT up to one million times baseline levels. This means that the animals that ingest these pieces of plastics are also ingesting a toxic chemical concoction.

Algalita’s research studies have shown that plastic pieces outweigh surface zooplankton in the central North Pacific Gyre by a factor of 6-1. In other words, 6 pounds of plastic for every 1 pound of zooplankton.

Plastics never fully biodegrade, meaning that no naturally occurring organisms can break these polymers down. Plastics undergo a process called photodegredation, where sunlight breaks the plastic bits down into smaller pieces, but they will always persist in the environment as a polymer.

The Gyre raises a very fundamental question: What part of human nature has allowed us to place so many species, including ourselves, in such danger? The urgency to address this environmental catastrophe poses many challenges. What is certain is that efforts will need to be broad-based, with people everywhere taking responsibility for their actions and discovering the right balance between what they want and what our Earth can provide.