The North Atlantic garbage patch is an area of trash made by humans in the ocean, located within the North Atlantic Gyre. This area was first recorded in 1972. A study lasting 22 years by the Sea Education Association found the patch to be hundreds of kilometers wide, with more than 200,000 pieces of trash per square kilometer. The trash comes from waste created by humans that flows from rivers into the ocean and is mostly made of tiny plastic pieces called microplastics. This trash poses a serious danger to animals and humans because they may eat the plastic or become entangled in it.

Few efforts have been made to raise awareness or clean up the North Atlantic garbage patch, such as The Garbage Patch State at UNESCO and The Ocean Cleanup. Most research and cleanup work has focused instead on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a similar area of trash in the North Pacific.

Characteristics

The patch is found between 22°N and 38°N, but its western and eastern edges are not clearly defined. The area where debris is found moves as far as 1,600 km (1,000 mi) north and south depending on the season, and shifts even farther south during the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, according to NOAA. The patch is estimated to cover an area hundreds of kilometers wide, with more than 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometer (about one piece per five square meters on average). The amount of plastic in the North Atlantic garbage patch has remained mostly the same even though global plastic production has increased five times over 22 years. This may be because the plastics sink below the surface or break into tiny pieces too small to be collected by the nets used by researchers. Because of this, the actual size of the North Atlantic garbage patch might be larger than what is currently measured. When microplastics are included, the patch could be as large as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

The North Atlantic garbage patch comes from human-made waste that flows from rivers into the ocean. Once in the ocean, ocean currents called gyres gather the trash into large groups. The surface of the patch is made up of tiny plastic pieces like polyethylene and polypropylene, which are common in household items. Heavier plastics, such as polyethylene terephthalate used in soft drink and water bottles, are believed to exist below the surface. However, these heavier plastics are not found in the North Atlantic garbage patch because the tools used to collect samples only capture materials on the ocean's surface.

Research

A team study by the Sea Education Association, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa collected plastic samples in the western North Atlantic and Caribbean Sea between 1986 and 2008. About 7,000 students from the SEA semester program used nets to collect samples from the ocean's surface on SEA's sailing research vessels over 22 years. This effort resulted in more than 64,000 plastic pieces, most of which were small fragments less than 10 millimeters in size and weighed less than 0.05 grams. Nikolai Maximenko of the University of Hawaii in Honolulu created a computer model to explain how plastics gather in areas where ocean currents meet, forming garbage patches. The model uses information from over 1,600 satellite-tracked floating buoys to show how ocean currents move. The plastic data collected by SEA students supported Maximenko's model, and scientists were able to accurately predict where plastic would collect in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Negative effects

In the North Atlantic Garbage Patch, much of the plastic is in the form of tiny particles called microplastics. These small pieces can be mistaken by marine animals for fish eggs. Microplastics can also be eaten by small organisms at the bottom of the food chain, such as zooplankton. When zooplankton consume microplastics, the plastic can move up the food chain as larger animals eat them. Scientists have not studied much about how microplastics travel through the food chain or how much plastic might build up in larger animals. Researchers believe the amount of plastic that accumulates in animals depends on how much plastic is eaten and how large the plastic pieces are. This buildup of plastic can harm marine life by making them malnourished and may threaten ocean biodiversity. Additionally, when humans eat seafood that contains microplastics, it could harm their health.

A study by The Ocean Cleanup and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research found that microplastic levels on the surface of the North Atlantic Garbage Patch are nearly at unsafe levels for marine life in the area. Scientists say that if action is not taken, this could cause serious harm to ocean animals. Another study from 2021 examined microplastics and chemicals in fish species like sardines, mackerels, and other fish in the middle of the food chain in the North Atlantic. Researchers found that while chemical levels in these fish were lower than in nearby areas, 29% of the studied fish had microplastics in their stomachs.

In September 2021, Hurricane Larry passed over Newfoundland, Canada, and during its peak, it released 113,000 microplastic particles per square meter each day. Models that track where the microplastics came from, along with analysis of the plastic types, suggest that these particles may have originated from the North Atlantic Garbage Patch in the North Atlantic Gyre.

Awareness and clean-up efforts

Not many efforts have been made to clean up the North Atlantic Garbage Patch because removing microplastics might cause more harm than good, as other small ocean creatures could also be harmed during the process. On April 11, 2013, artist Maria Cristina Finucci started The Garbage Patch State at UNESCO in Paris in front of Director General Irina Bokova. This event was the first in a series supported by UNESCO and the Italian Ministry of the Environment, leading to art exhibits worldwide that highlighted the size and seriousness of garbage patches and encouraged awareness and action.

Dutch inventor Boyan Slat and his nonprofit, The Ocean Cleanup, are creating technology to remove plastic from oceans. The cleanup will begin in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and later expand to other garbage patches globally. In addition to removing microplastics, The Ocean Cleanup is also developing tools to remove larger plastic pieces from rivers, which are a major source of ocean plastic.