Currently the earth supports 7.5 Billion people with the population still climbing. The global population grew from 1 billion in 1800 to 7.616 billion in 2018. It is expected to keep growing, and estimates have put the total population at 8.6 billion by mid-2030, 9.8 billion by mid-2050, and 11.2 billion by 2100. With this increase, the amount of material resources needed to maintain this vast number will be astronomical. Having sufficient food and clean water for the increasing population is becoming questionable. And we have yet come to terms with today’s waste disposal. The oceans and rivers are not meant to be the waste dumping grounds for us today and tomorrow. As divers, this is what we see already.
One of the main places our trash travels to is the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, or as most people known it as, the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch. An ocean gyre is defined as a system of circular ocean currents formed by the Earth’s wind patterns and the forces created by the rotation of the planet. Despite its name, there is nothing great about this swirling mass of trash that is four times the size of Texas. This ocean gyre has become so filled with trash, that it was once thought you could see it from space. That theory has since been proven wrong, and is actually worse than we imagined. Much of the trash found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is microplastic.
