Many have heard of the Great Pacific garbage patch.
It's trash has accumulated in an area in between Hawaii and California.
The patch is two times the size of Texas or three times the size of France. As you can imagine, this is a big area just full of trash.
What trash you may ask?
Fishing nets, lost equipment, water bottles, and especially microplastics.
Microplastics are tiny particles of plastic-like materials that are too small to see with the human eye, but make the oceans look like sludge.
The pacific garbage patch is a huge environmental issue to the marine life there because they can choke or get caught in the plastics. The patch also affects the algae by blocking the sunlight from reaching them.
This affects the entire food system because the consumers of those algae get affected and then the consumers of those consumers get affected and it goes on and on.
However, not all hope is lost.
There are organizations and causes solely devoted to cleaning up this mess humans have created. Organizations such as The Ocean Cleanup project are using natural oceanic forces to cost-effectively clean up the oceans. Here’s a picture of the vastness of the Great Pacific garbage patch:
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