Photos: Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Documented—A First

Tangled with plastic, rope, and various aquatic animals, a "ghost net" drifts in August 2009 in the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, a loose, free-floating "dump" twice the size of <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/states/state_texas.html">Texas</a>.<br>
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<a href="http://sio.ucsd.edu/Expeditions/Seaplex/">SEAPLEX (the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition)</a> recently became the first dedicated research trip to study the science of the remote plastic vortex in the <a href="http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/ocean-profile.html">ocean</a> between <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/states/state_california.html">California</a> and <a href="http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/places/states/state_hawaii.html">Hawaii</a>. (See <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090731-ocean-trash-pacific.html">"Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Attracts Explorers."</a>)<br>
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While large pieces are common, the garbage patch is not an island of plastic, the team found on their 19-day expedition in August. Much of the debris is in the form of countless thumbnail-size scraps.<br>
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"I think the plastic-confetti metaphor is probably closest to the reality," said expedition member Jesse Powell, a doctoral student in biological oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California.
Tangled with plastic, rope, and various aquatic animals, a "ghost net" drifts in August 2009 in the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, a loose, free-floating "dump" twice the size of Texas.
While large pieces are common, the garbage patch is not an island of plastic, the team found on their 19-day expedition in August. Much of the debris is in the form of countless thumbnail-size scraps.
"I think the plastic-confetti metaphor is probably closest to the reality," said expedition member Jesse Powell, a doctoral student in biological oceanography at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California.
Photograph courtesy Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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Photos: Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Documented—A First
Take a look at pieces of the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, a loose, free-floating "dump" twice the size of Texas.