The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, plastic debris gets caught in ocean currents that drag it all together, creating a massive island of trash double the size of Texas

Plastic from the Ocean. Kevin Krejci. CC BY 2.0

In the Pacific Ocean lie two massive islands of garbage, known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Western Garbage Patch is located near Japan, and the Eastern one is in the waters between Hawaii and California. Combined, both patches are estimated to span 1.6 million square kilometers (over 620,000 square miles). This is equivalent to twice the size of Texas, the second largest state in the United States in terms of land, and it is not even an exact measurement. Due to the fact that a lot of marine debris sinks to the ocean floor, the exact size of the patches is unknown. Trillions of pieces of plastic have all found their way into the ocean and were carried to these island patches by various ocean currents.

Washed up plastic. Fabi Fliervoet. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

Part of that problem is because much of the debris consists of microplastics, small pieces of plastic 5 millimeters or less that have flaked off from larger items. These microplastics are also easily ingested by fish and other marine life, which is absolutely damaging to them. The chemicals in the plastic will affect the animals, which can start affecting the food chain as the smaller ones get eaten, and it could eventually make its way up to humans. It is hard to determine the full extent of the effects of them in human bodies due to the fact that we don’t know how long microplastics stay in our bodies, but studies show microplastics harm cells. Microplastics are the most dangerous and harmful part of all the litter in the ocean due to these effects.

Besides humans, the litter in the ocean is harmful to marine life. There are turtles that ingest plastic bags, thinking they are jellyfish, birds that mistake some bits for fish eggs and feed it to their chicks, causing their organs to rupture and other sea animals that die of starvation because their stomach is full of plastic that has no nutrients. Beyond that, some plastics will release methane and ethylene when exposed to sunlight, both of which are greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming. In addition, the microplastics affect the efficiency of photosynthesis in plankton, which in turn affects the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Microplastic negatively impacts so many parts of life and the environment.

Cleaner beaches. Paul van de Velde. CC BY 2.0

To Get Involved

There are many organizations that fight plastic pollution in the ocean. As most plastic ends up in the ocean, a lot of them are focused on helping reduce the amount there, but there are organizations that aim to reduce the use of plastic in the world overall. For example, the Oceanic Society lowers plastic use by raising awareness of its effects, reducing usage in tourism practices and by supporting coastal communities. The Plastic Soup Foundation based in the Netherlands aims to prevent plastic from entering the environment in the first place. By sharing knowledge and monitoring research related to plastic pollution, the Plastic Soup Foundation educates people and formulates projects to aid in their goal. It also advocates for diminishing individual plastic usage and creating regulations and legislations for decreasing plastic.

To learn more about the Oceanic Society, click here.

To learn more about the Plastic Soup Foundation, click here. 

To learn more about the Plastic Pollution Coalition, click here.

Katherine Lim

Katherine Lim is an undergraduate student at Vassar College studying English literature and Italian. She loves both reading and writing, and she hopes to pursue both in the future. With a passion for travel and nature, she wants to experience more of the world and everything it has to offer.

Daring Divers: The Superhuman Bajau People of Southeast Asia 

Mastering the seas has long been a task attempted by many seafaring cultures around the world. The Bajau people, however, seem to command the ocean with an unmatched talent. 

Bajau people. johnjodeery. CC BY 2.0.

Wandering the Sulu Sea off the coast of the Philippines, the Bajau people spent the last 1,000 years accumulating an impressive track record for their seafaring ways. Often referred to as “sea nomads” or “sea gypsies,” the Bajau people live almost entirely on houseboats, and only return to land to bury their dead, trade, construct their houseboats, and wait out sea storms. This ethnic group sails the waters around Indonesia and Malaysia as well, which are highly congested with piracy; the Bajau people usually flee from attack instead of choosing combat. Because they live solely on the waters, the ethnic group does not have any official affiliation with neighboring countries. 

Houseboat of the Bajau people. Yanajin33. CC BY-SA 4.0.

The exact origins of the Bajau people are unknown, but it is presumed that they are of a Malay background. Most of their known background is contained in oral history, with much of it being unraveled through folklore. One story of their origin recounts the tale of a man named Bajau who was known to displace the water in rivers using his body mass. It is told that villagers then followed him to easily collect the fish that were left behind. Envy of his people’s large fish hauls raged among neighboring tribes, but all attempts to kill Bajau were unsuccessful. His people then thrived and became the rulers of the oceans that they are today. 

Bajau children. Education Projects for Children in Sabah. CC BY 2.0.

The Bajau people are famous for their incredible fishing expertise, with specific mastery of diving. Researchers have observed Bajau divers reaching depths of over 230 feet and remaining underwater for several minutes at a time. Yet, the most surprising aspect of their expertise is that it is completely unaided; the Bajau people do not use wetsuits or advanced diving technology. They rely solely on wooden goggles and makeshift spears, but display unparalleled precision in spearfishing. Master divers spend about five hours a day underwater and catch almost 20 pounds of fish and other elusive marine life. 

Although most of the Bajau people’s skill comes from endless hours of practice, scientists have found that their bodies adapted to their active lifestyle. The Bajau people are found to have spleens larger than the average human, which researchers conclude is due to their long diving hours. The spleen stores red blood cells needed in oxygen retention, so larger spleens correlate positively with intense diving. Other studies have found that they also possess different variants of genes that assist in long dives, such as that of BDKRB2 which is linked to the rate in which oxygen spreads throughout the body. 

Little can be traced of the origins of the Bajau people, but they surely hold a steady future in being uncontested overlords of the oceans.

Ella Nguyen

is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

Recycling for the Future: Scientists Create Enzyme Formula to Break Down Plastics

Our human habit of excessive plastic consumption has degraded the environment, and we have yet to find a solution to undo the damage. However, scientists have paved the way for a much speedier resolution with a new enzyme formula. 

Scientists have crafted a formula of two plastic-munching enzymes, PETase and MHETase, to rapidly break down plastic waste. The PETase enzyme has been previously used to break down plastics, and now when combined with MHETase, this duo can dissolve plastics six times faster. 

PETase, as its name implies, is the enzyme that dissolves polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a thermoplastic polymer commonly used in plastic bottles and clothing. The polymer PET takes hundreds of years to break down, but with PETase, the process is reduced to mere days. 

However, the rate at which PET is produced has proven to be far too mighty for the rate at which PETase can break plastics down.

So far, researchers have only found a way to break down plastic bottles, which account for just over 4% of all of the PET production that exists. Ecologists find this minuscule number frightening, as many of Earth’s limited resources are being pushed to the brink while a shift to regular recycling has been quite limited. Scientists are also highly concerned with PET’s active role in accelerating climate change. The copious amounts of greenhouse gases that are spit into the atmosphere during PET production grows more concerning as PET usage rapidly increases. PET is a sturdy material that is not broken down well by microbial organisms, so other potential solutions have failed to effectively break down the impenetrable product. The downside to current popular methods of breaking down plastics is the high amount of energy required; in turn, this becomes an incredibly costly process.

Now, an innovative team consisting of American and British scientists has found a way to create a “super-enzyme.” The MHETase enzyme was studied using the Diamond Light Source, a powerful X-ray beam that is 10 billion times brighter than the sun, to study the atoms of MHETase. They have engineered a way to connect PETase with its sibling enzyme MHETase, which has now tripled the speed of the breakdown process. Their preliminary experiments tested the ability of the enzymes to work together, but as two separate enzymes. Then, they physically connected the two enzymes, and found that the two work better attached. This new enzyme deconstructs plastics in two steps. First, PETase eats away at the surface of the plastic. Then, MHETase slices up the rest. 

Researchers are hoping that providing a commercially sustainable method for plastic deconstruction will shift people away from depleting Earth’s oil and gas resources. The discovery of the super-enzyme formula certainly holds hope for preserving the world’s ecology, if only humans learn to change destructive consuming habits for the better.

Ella Nguyen

is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

See How It Feels to Be an Ocean Animal Stuck in a Plastic Bag

Imagine being trapped inside a huge plastic bag. Each year, more than a million marine creatures and other birds and animals die from plastic trash. In the week leading up to World Oceans Day 2016, National Geographic took to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with a plastic bag large enough to bring this issue to life at a human scale.

Imagine being trapped inside a huge plastic bag. Each year, more than a million marine creatures and other birds and animals die from plastic trash.