You can read more information about plastic in the ocean and it's horrible effects on Earth here: https://www.plasticinthesea.com/The description was based on analysis by a couple of Alaska based researchers in 1988 who measured neustonic plastic in the North Pacific Ocean. Researchers found relatively high concentrations of marine debris accumulating in areas ruled by ocean currents. Extrapolating from findings in the Sea of Korea, the researchers hypothesized that identical conditions would occur in other parts of the Pacific where prevailing currents were favorable to the creation of relatively stable waters. They mainly indicated the North Pacific Gyre. At TEDxDelft2012, Boyan Slat unveiled an idea for eliminating large quantities of marine debris from oceanic gyres. Calling his assignment The Ocean Cleanup, he proposed to use floor currents to let debris drift to assortment systems. Operating costs would be relatively modest and the operation would be so effective that it will probably even be profitable. The concept uses floating booms that divert in place of catch the debris. This avoids bycatch while amassing even the smallest debris. According to Slat's calculations, a gyre may be wiped clean up in five years' time, amounting to at least 7. 25 million tons of plastic across all gyres. He also advocated "radical plastic pollutants prevention methods" to steer clear of gyres from reforming. In 2015, The Ocean Cleanup assignment was a category winner in the Design Museum's 2015 Designs of the Year awards. A fleet of 30 vessels, adding a 32-meter 105-foot mothership, took part in a month-long voyage to investigate how much plastic is current using trawls and aerial surveys. In a 2014 study researchers sampled 1571 locations across the arena's oceans, and determined that discarded fishing gear equivalent to buoys, lines, and nets accounted for more than 60% of the mass of plastic marine debris. According to a 2011 EPA report, "The basic source of marine debris is the fallacious waste disposal or control of trash and manufacturing products, adding plastics e. g., littering, illegal dumping. Debris is generated on land at marinas, ports, rivers, harbors, docks, and storm drains. Debris is generated at sea from fishing vessels, stationary systems, and load ships." Constituents differ size-wise from miles long-deserted fishing nets to micro pellets used in cosmetics and abrasive cleaners. A desktop model predicts that a hypothetical piece of debris from the U. S. west coast would head for Asia, and return to the U. S. in six years. Debris from the east coast of Asia in a year or less. While microplastics make up 94 % the predicted 1. 8 trillion plastic pieces, they amount to just eight % of the 79,000 metric tons of plastic there, with most of anything coming from the fishing industry. The size of the patch is indefinite, as is the specific distribution of debris, as a result of large items are uncommon. Most debris includes small plastic debris suspended at or slightly below the floor, evading detection by plane or satellite. Instead, the size of the patch depends upon sampling. Estimates of size range from 700,000 square kilometers 270,000 sq mi concerning the size of Texas to more than 15,000,000 square kilometers 5,800,000 sq mi concerning the size of Russia. Such estimates, nevertheless, are conjectural given the complexities of sampling and the wish to assess findings against other areas. Further, although the size of the patch depends upon a better than normal degree of awareness of pelagic debris, there is not any simple for making a choice on the boundary among "normal" and "increased" levels of pollutants to supply a firm estimate of the affected area. Net-based surveys are less subjective than direct observations but are restricted concerning the area that may be sampled net apertures 1–2 m and ships usually need to slow all the way down to deploy nets, requiring a committed ship's time. The plastic debris sampled depends upon net mesh size, with identical mesh sizes required to make meaningful comparisons among experiences. Floating debris usually is sampled with a neuston or manta trawl net lined with a 0. 33 mm mesh. Given the very high level of spatial clumping in marine litter, large numbers of net tows are required to appropriately signify the average abundance of litter at sea. Long term changes in plastic meso litter have been suggested using floor net tows: in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in 1999, plastic abundance was 335,000 items/km2 and 5. 1 kg/km2, roughly an order of magnitude larger than samples collected in the 1980s. Similar dramatic increases in plastic debris have been suggested in Japan. However, caution is required in interpreting such findings, on account of the problems of excessive spatial heterogeneity, and the wish to evaluate samples from equivalent water masses, that's to say that, if an examination of the same parcel of water a week apart is performed, an order of magnitude change in plastic awareness may be accompanied. In August 2009, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography/Project Kaisei SEAPLEX survey mission of the Gyre found that plastic debris was current in 100 consecutive samples taken at various depths and net sizes along a path of 1,700 miles 2,700 km throughout the patch. The survey found that, although the patch consists of large pieces, it is frequently made from smaller items that increase in awareness toward the gyre's center, and this ' confetti like' pieces which are seen just below the floor suggests the affected area may be much smaller. 2009 data collected from Pacific albatross populations indicate the presence of two distinctive debris zones. In March 2018, The Ocean Cleanup published a zine summarizing their findings from the Mega 2015 and Aerial Expedition 2016. In 2015, the organization crossed the Great Pacific garbage patch with 30 vessels, to make observations and take samples with 652 survey nets. They collected a complete of 1. 2 million pieces, which they counted and labeled into their respective size categories. In order to also account for the bigger, but more rare debris, they also overflew the patch in 2016 with a C 130 Hercules plane, equipped with LiDAR sensors. The findings from the two expeditions found that the patch covers 1. 6 million square kilometers with an awareness of 10–100 kg per square kilometer. They estimated 80,000 metric tons in the patch, with 1. 8 trillion plastic pieces, out of which 92% of the mass is to be present in items larger than 0. 5 centimeters. The patch is one of a couple of oceanic areas where researchers have studied the consequences and impact of plastic photodegradation in the neustonic layer of water. Unlike biological debris, which biodegrades, plastic disintegrates into ever smaller pieces while final a polymer without altering chemically. This technique continues all the way down to the molecular level. Some plastics decompose within a year of getting into the water, liberating in all likelihood toxic chemicals equivalent to bisphenol A, PCBs, and derivatives of polystyrene. As the plastic flotsam photodegrades into smaller and smaller pieces, it concentrates on the higher water column. As it disintegrates, the pieces become small enough to be ingested by aquatic organisms that reside near the ocean's floor. Plastic may become focused in the neuston, thereby getting into the food chain.