Scientists find 'Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch'

Scientists have just completed an unprecedented journey into the vast and little-explored "Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch." On the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX), researchers got the first detailed view of plastic debris floating in a remote ocean region. It wasn't a pretty sight. The Scripps research vessel New Horizon left its San Diego homeport on August 2, 2009, for the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, located some 1,000 miles off California's coast, and returned on August 21, 2009. Scientists surveyed plastic distribution and abundance, taking samples for analysis in the lab and assessing the impacts of debris on marine life. Before this research, little was known about the size of the "garbage patch" and the threats it poses to marine life and the gyre's biological environment. The expedition was led by a team of Scripps Institution of Oceanography graduate students, with support from University of California Ship Funds, the National Science Foundation and Project Kaisei.