This is another big step by the industrial age: Two big nations finally managed to significantly pollute the pacific ocean (said to be the biggest ocean of the planet).

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between the US and Chinese coast. Its size is estimated to be twice the size of Texas.

Thousands of tons of bottle caps, bags, wrappers, abandoned fishing nets and micro-pellets used in abrasive cleaners are carried from the west coast of North America in about five years, and debris from the east coast of Asia in a year or less. Some of the trash have labels written in Chinese and English.

According to Katsuhiko Saido (Nihon University, Japan), plastic actually does decompose, releasing potentially toxic chemicals that can disrupt the functioning of hormones in animals and marine life.

Plastics have entangled birds and turned up in the bellies of fish. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates 100,000 marine mammals die trash-related deaths each year.

Wikipedia: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch
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