![]() "There are many different kinds of plastics out in the ocean and they come from a number of different sources. Can you talk a little more about the plastic debris in the ocean. But you're saying that most of the plastic is so small that's it's hard or impossible to see. I would think that most of the plastics that ends up in the ocean are bigger pieces. These are tiny plastics that you might not even see if you sailed through the middle of the garbage patch, they're so small and mixed throughout the water column." "Well, imagine tiny, tiny micro plastics just swirling around, mixing in the water column from waves and wind, that's always moving and changing with the currents. What we know about this area is that it's made up of tiny micro plastics, almost akin to a peppery soup, with scattered larger items, fishing gear, those kind of items swirling around."Ī peppery soup? Could you explain that again? The one that we know the most about is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch which lies in an area between Hawaii and California. So there are garbage patches of all different sizes and shapes and compositions. These are areas where debris naturally accumulates. "There are garbage patches all over the world. I noticed that you said garbage patch 'areas.' So the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is only one area in the ocean where marine debris concentrates? “A lot of people hear the word patch and they immediately think of almost like a blanket of trash that can easily be scooped up, but actually these areas are always moving and changing with the currents, and it's mostly these tiny plastics that you can't immediately see with the naked eye." Let's start with the obvious question: what are we talking about when we say 'garbage patch?' Dianna, welcome and thanks for joining us. How can that be? Well, I recently sat down with Dianna Parker from the NOAA Marine Debris Program to find out what the garbage patch is and isn't, what we know and don't know, and what we can do about this ocean-sized problem. What it looks like to the human eye, from satellites, is, for the most part, well. But here's the thing: it doesn't really look like that at all. ![]() a vast vortex of human waste - plastic bags, tires, cans, barrels, you name it. And it's easy to see why: it conjures up a powerful image. It's a phrase that's really caught on in the past few years. ![]() This is Making Waves from NOAA's National Ocean Service. ![]() What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? What does it look like? Why can't we just clean it up? Transcript ![]()
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