You may have heard about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch where tons and tons of garbage, especially plastics) have accumulated. About the size of the state of Texas, an estimated 3.5 million tons of trash are swirling around and around. Pink and blue toothbrushes, plastic bags, yellow plastic rubber duckies, sneakers and baby pacifiers are just some of the junk located in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Located between Hawaii and San Francisco,California, this massive patch of trash was discovered by Charles Moore, in 1997. Scientists say they've discovered another similarly large garbage dump in the Atlantic Ocean!
Stretching from Virginia to Cuba, billions of similar plastic junk is located hundreds of miles off the coast of North America. With little movement in these areas but surround by strong currents, the discarded rubbish spins around and around, accumulating but not dispersing throughout the ocean. Scientists call these areas gyres. For the past 22 years, scientists have conducted 6100 tows of the North Atlantic. The nets have turned up lots and lots of teeny plastic pieces, called "mermaid tears" or "nurdles". Such a large concentration of plastic bits,200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometre,(about 1/4 sq. mile) suggest the Atlantic Garbage Patch is similar in size to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch... a sad badge of honor for another of earth's oceans.