The great pacific patch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The great pacific patch - Essay Example The western and the eastern garbage patches form the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Larger proportion of the patch consists of the plastic that is not bio-degradable but instead, photodegradable releasing small plastic particles that are harmful to marine animals. The particles act like sponge that soak toxic chemicals in the sea and suspend on the sea water and seabed sediments. When fish and other marine animals feed on them, they may die and their predators may have less to feed on causing successive deaths (Curtin & Belcher, 2008). Changes in the sea life for algae and other marine life also affect human life. For example, changes in water temperatures disturb the numbers of bacteria and fungi in the waters with negative consequences on marine animals and fish. Fish is essential for the growing human population and diseases arising from microorganisms affect food attainability. Wastes from factories cause harm to these organisms and can as well poison wildlife and humans. Wastes from industries also lead to declining of the sea grasses and reduced pathogenic potentials. Sea skaters also lay their eggs on flotsam objects such as pumice and seashells. Increased number of plastic wastes in the seas and large water bodies has increased egg concentrations in the gyre area because the plastic garbage provides surface for laying of these eggs. The marine wastes can also disturb the food webs at the sea in the north pacific gyre. Planktons and algae on the basement of the sea use sunlight to make their own food. The trash that collects on the surface of water blocks the sunlight from reaching planktons and algae which are the most common autotrophs in the food web. The entire food web may change because fish and other small animals that feed on the planktons and algae will have less to feed on and as a result may die. The predators that feed on these fish will also be affected and the food web will be affected in whole (Bowler, Karl, & Colwell,