Why???

__*not done yet*

__Why is the world’s biggest landfill in the Pacific Ocean?____ In the northern Pacific Ocean there is a North Pacific Subtropical Gyre which moves slowly in a clockwise spiral of currents. These currents are created by a high-pressure system of air currents. They collect trash from beaches all over the world and it travels to a central area. Over time, more and more trash is dumped there and it has created two large masses of trash. Most of the area is filled with tiny phytoplankton and few big fish or mammals so fishermen usually never travel through the gyre. Instead, there are millions of pounds of trash, most of it is plastic. It’s divided in two: the Western Pacific Garbage Patch, and the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch. Together they’re called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Eastern one is located around Hawaii and California and is almost two times bigger than Texas. The Western one is located closer to Japan. They are connected by a thin, long current called the Subtropical Convergence Zone. Ten percent of the world’s plastic ends up in the ocean each year and ninety percent of it is floating in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Most of the plastic sinks to the bottom of the ocean due to its mass and it damages life on the ocean floor with man-made pollution. The rest of the garbage floats.

__Why should we care about garbage patch?__  The garbage doesn't affect us directly, but still it has a lot of effect on us. It can kill wildlife, can damage boat and submarine equipment, cause litter beach, and can harm commercial and local fisheries. The toxic materials will have a long journey before reaching our stomach. For example, jellyfish eat toxic plastic, then they are eaten by larger fish, which are consumed by human, and then result ingestion of toxic chemical in our stomach.

The long-lasting plastics, one of the trashes, end up in stomachs of many marine birds, animals, and their young, such as sea turtles, and black-footed albatross. |The floating objects absorb organic pollutants from seawater, and they can cause hormone disruption when ingested. Any species can be attached to floating plastic in one region, and can be drifted long distance to colonize other ecosystems too. So, the garbage patch can also ruin our environment too.

If we do nothing about this problem, we will not be able to eat anymore fish safely, go swimming in the summer, or will have to live in the plastic! And we don't want that to happen! We all want to live good life. So, we need solution, such as to enforce international treaties to prohibit dumping at sea, eliminate the use of plastic bags, manage waste on land, find alternative to plastic that is environmentally sage, and to expand recycle programs.