On the remote southeastern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii , lies the beach of Kamilo , where swirling bounding main currents select in addition to dump all sorts of trash from the Pacific Northwest. The native Hawaiians used to top at that spot to collect large evergreen logs that drifted ashore , from which they fashioned dugout canoes. Today , instead of logs tons of plastic litter the crescent-shaped beach for to a greater extent than than a mile.
Hawaii is situated inward the path of the North Pacific Gyre , a large rotating bounding main electrical current that circles the Pacific betwixt North America in addition to Japan. The gyre's rotational designing draws inward trash from across the North Pacific Ocean , including coastal waters off North America in addition to Nihon , in addition to traps it at the pump to flat the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Almost 90% of this trash is plastic.
Photo credit: Algalita.org
Contrary to mutual belief , the garbage patch is non a floating isle of debris visible from satellites or from a boat or plane. Rather , they are similar a vast , plastic soup consisting of millions of plastic pieces that stimulate got disintegrated into tiny particles nether the elements. They rest suspended inward the H2O but below the surface , hidden from view. They solely top visible when they larn washed ashore , similar on the beaches of Hawaii.
The Hawaiian archipelago , which stretches from the Big Island of Hawaii westward for 1 ,500 miles to Kure Atoll , acts similar teeth of a giant comb , collecting debris every bit it blows past times in addition to washing them ashore. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 lot of this waste materials ends upward at Kamilo Beach.
In recent years , several community-based cleanup efforts stimulate got taken identify on Kamilo Beach. Prior to these efforts , the debris was 8 to 10 feet high inward or in addition to hence places. Still , volunteers withdraw betwixt fifteen in addition to xx tons of novel trash every yr from Kamilo in addition to other beaches that stretch ix miles upward the coast.
Photo credit: gabriella levine/Flickr
Photo credit: www.oceandefenderhawaii.com
Sources: Wikipedia / Greenhome.com / LA Times