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Why We Can’t Just Sweep Up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific. It’s also known as the Pacific trash vortex.
A lot of plans have been made to clean it up. But we haven’t found a feasible way to do it yet. It’s microplastic, which is hard to remove.
But it turns out there’s another reason.
It’s alive.
What is a Gyre?
A gyre is an eddy in the ocean caused by multiple currents meeting. The most famous example is the Sargasso Sea, where certain species of eel travel to spawn in their thousands. There are a total of five large/primary gyres.
Gyres pull things together. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a gyre, and that’s why all the trash is there.
But they pull something else together, too…small floating animals. Gyres are, it turns out, incredibly diverse ecosystems.
Most of the life is neustons, surface-dwelling organisms that travel with the waves.
The neustons are then fed on by other creatures, such as seabirds, fish, sea turtles, etc.
The North Pacific has relatively low nutrients, which makes the life in the “garbage patch” all the more remarkable.