Our Toxic Oceans

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch,
also described as the Eastern Garbage Patch or the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter [toxic materials] in the central North Pacific Ocean

For Kids

As oceans fall ill, Washington bureaucrats squabble

By Les Blumenthal McClatchy Newspapers Les Blumenthal, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Sun Nov 8, 12:01 pm ET

WASHINGTON — Off the coast of Washington state, mysterious algae mixed with sea foam have killed more than 8,000 seabirds, puzzling scientists. A thousand miles off California, researchers have discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling vortex roughly twice the size of Texas filled with tiny bits of plastic and other debris. Continue

photo by NOAA

An oceanic gyre is any large-scale system of rotating ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements. Gyres are caused by the Coriolis effect; planetary vorticity along with horizontal and vertical friction, which determine the circulation patterns from the wind curl (torque).^[1]
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