Different kinds of litter are polluting many of our planet's seas and oceans and one of the worst affected areas is the North Pacific Gyre. It is not very difficult to imagine the level of marine pollution in this area of the Pacific when you know that this area is also often being referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The latest report about a huge littering problem in Pacific comes from the environmentalist Tim Silverwood, who in his recent latest voyage across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu to Vancouver documented the level of marine pollution in this area.
Speaking at the „Keep Australia Beautiful“campaign he pointed out that "twice the size of France and growing exponentially, this sea of rubbish is threatening to become one of the great ecological disasters of our time“
The levels of pollution in this area are horrifying, even thousands miles from the nearest land mass, he observed different plastic debris, among other a toothbrush, pen caps, bottle caps and a toy plastic gorilla.
If this pollution issue remains unchallenged it will cause huge damage to entire marine environment and on a long run cause huge problems to an entire marine food chain in Pacific. Animals can digest this litter, some of which also has different toxic substances that can create serious health damage to not only the animals that digest it, but also humans after they consume affected fish or some other marine animal.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch formed gradually, over the years, as a result of marine pollution gathered by oceanic currents. According to some recent estimates around 80% of the litter comes from land-based sources and 20% from ships.
There still hasn't been any serious cleaning effort to tackle pollution in the North Pacific Gyre, only several researches with the aim to identify the best methods that would allow a safe removal of these pollutants from the ocean.
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