What impact does the great pacific garbage patch have?
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is not going to fix itself. We created it. so we need to do fix it. If we don’t fix this problem it will have a massive impact on animals and people.
Firstly, the plastic that has been captured and dragged into the vortex is sitting in the sun all day, everyday for 20-1000 years. It leeches out a chemical called Bisphenol A (BPA) which has been proven to have many effects on marine life. In 2010 a study was undertaken to see what these effects were. The study indicated that it has ‘feminisation’ effects. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch was found to have high concentrations of Bisphenol A in its environment. It was found that there were “almost 5 times more females to males than in normal conditions” (Macpherson, 2012). It has also been proven to disrupt the reproductive system and show birth defects and behavioural changes. Secondly, animals such as loggerhead sea turtles mistake plastic grocery bags for jellyfish. Obviously, when they attempt to eat the so called ‘jellyfish’ they choke and die. Birds mistake bottle caps for food and the retainer rings from a bottle lid strangles them. Thirdly, this problem is affecting the food chain as well. Because the trash is covering the layer of ocean, the sunlight cannot get through to the algae and plankton growing under the oceans surface, meaning they will die. As a consequence of this, fish and turtles will also die as they will not have a main source of food. Because of the above, the Kings of the ocean, tuna, sharks and whales, will die. We are also connected to this food chain, meaning we will loose one of our main sources of food. |