National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Giant Ocean-Trash Vortex Attracts Explorers


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Two expeditions—including one that sets sail next week—will visit the Pacific Ocean's spiraling trash heap this summer to call attention to plastic pollution (above, a trash-covered beach in Southeast Asia).

The Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, situated in remote waters between California and Hawaii, is created by ocean currents that pick up millions of tons of the world's discarded plastic.

Photograph courtesy Wallace J. Nichols