Garbage Patches The ocean gyres concentrate floating debris in the center, like a whirlpool. The direction of angular acceleration is toward the center. Plastics were introduced within the last century. In the last few decades, an increasing and alarming portion of that debris consists of human-derived plastics, that is, garbage. Plastic is a durable material, taking hundreds to thousands of years to degrade. In the degrading process, plastics breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, to the point where they may not be visible to the human eye. Nevertheless, these fragments are intermixed with plankton and are consumed by marine animals, from salmon, to whales, to birds. Plastic bits are now six times as prevalent as plankton in the gyre. source: https://www.bookyourdive.com/blog/2014/3/23/great-pacific-garbage-patch The amount of garbage in the oceans is difficult to estimate, but the Great Pacific Garbage Patch contains about 100 million tons of plastic debris, at a density of approximately 970,000 plastic fragments per square kilometer.  The total area is around 4.5 million square kilometers, or about the size of  Turkey or double the state of Texas. The garbage patch is concentrated 2000 kilometers west of Los Angeles. source: http://nature.ca/explore/di-ef/wdgc_pp_e.cfm Most of the trash floats in the top thirty meters of water, but storms disperse the flotsam, and storm and solar degraded plastic sinks deeper in the water column. source: http://www.norcalblogs.com/birds/2013/03/25/plastic-bags-birds/ The stomach contents of this albatross indicate the consequences of plastic litter in the environment.    Fishing gear is a major component of marine debris. The nets continue to capture fish and other unsuspecting animals long after being discarded. source: (right) http://www.vestaldesign.com/blog/2006/08/oceans-of-garbage/ and (left) http://www.worldcrunch.com/tech-science/trying-to-spot-the-ocean-s-plastic-soup-from-up-high/c4s5496/#.VHUH6FbpTwI