Research Document

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/trashing-ocean?gclid=CPKvvJLD7KgCFQoObAodtUlbbA
• North Pacific gyre has enormous amount of trash
• AKA Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch
• Size of Texas
• 80% came from land
• Animals become entangled in large pieces of debris and can be cut, drowned, or slowed down by dragging the extra weight.
• Heavy gear like abandoned fishing nets can damage reefs and other important habitats.
• Each year, marine debris kills more than one million birds and 100,000 marine mammals
• Causes hundreds of boating accidents.
• Plastic makes up 60 to 80 percent of marine debris worldwide
• Most plastics are not biodegradable
• Plastic bits outweigh plankton by more than six to one in NPG
• Filter feeders that strain food out of the water, mistake plastic for food
• Albatross chicks die of starvation and dehydration because their parents have fed them bottle caps and cigarette lighters, which they can't digest
• Plastic products soak up toxic chemicals from seawater
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090820-plastic-decomposes-oceans-seas.html
• Degrading plastics are leaching potentially toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A
• All the water samples were found to contain derivatives of polystyrene
• Degraded at temperatures of 86 degrees Fahrenheit
• Interfere with the reproductive systems of animals
• About 44 percent of all seabirds eat plastic often with fatal effects.
• 267 marine species are affected by plastic garbage
• The chemicals can potentially cause cancer
• Most debris is smaller than a fifth of an inch dispersed over millions of square miles of ocean and miles deep in the water column.
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Po-Re/Pollution-of-the-Ocean-by-Plastic-and-Trash.html
• City storm sewers are a significant source of solid waste entering the sea from land sources
• Items that are brought to the beach and left there by beachgoers;
• Garbage deliberately or accidentally discarded by ships at sea or from offshore oil platforms