At any rate, I think I’ll be a novelist. Not that I have ever tried my hand at fiction. But fiction is really just reality from one’s own viewpoint. Anyways, recently, following a caffeine-filled day of studying physics or some other such material, I began to think about writing. And I don’t mean actually writing down some of the strange stories I begin to dream up while standing in a line (which seems to happen quite regularly here in this new city) or eating a blueberry muffin (I should tell you right now that I don’t stand in line for muffins – in fact I have a strict no lining up for muffins policy). But I mean to say that I began thinking about writing and not why but how writers end up being writers. And this brought me to the website of Carlos Ruiz Zafon, my favorite author (Okay, I call many authors my favorite author, but Zafon has a curiously wonderful storytelling way about him that results in novels that are so slow to digest post-read that I feel as if I need to eat some fibre or something to get things moving before I can move on to another book). Writing about writing, Zafon suggests that “…You should only become a writer if the possibility of not being one would kill you.” And I don’t quite know how to explain how I felt when I read this sentence, but I believe this is what Oprah calls the “Ah-hah!” moment (I would also like to be someone who only requires a first name one day, but I suppose I need a name like Oprah for that to happen).

This is what that nagging feeling must be! My whole life I have had this feeling that I should be doing something about all of the stories I spend so much time on in my head (And I don’t mean do something like go to therapy because honestly, some of the stories I come up with are extremely weird, but I mean do something like write a novel).

And so here is where we begin: Blueberry muffins are delicious.

It has been called the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’, a region of the North Pacific Ocean containing some 3 million metric tons of trash, mostly plastic debris no larger than a grain of rice (Lawrence 2010). And it isn’t the only region of the ocean where plastic accumulates in such massive quantities. Ocean circulation drives the formation of gyres, circular ocean current systems that concentrate plastic and other marine debris in their calm centres, called convergence zones, regions which have been dubbed, ‘the world’s largest landfills’ (Lawrence 2010). This special feature takes us straight into the centre of the widening gyre as we examine the accumulation of plastic debris in ocean convergence zones and discuss what, exactly, happens to plastic at sea.

We wear it, we brush our hair with it, and we eat with it. It is lightweight, durable, and inexpensive. Plastic is everywhere…including in the ocean. And it is no surprise. Globally, more than 115 million metric tons of plastic is produced annually (Whitty 2009). Approximately ten per cent of this plastic ends up in the world’s oceans, via sewage waste, storm drains, coastal pollution, and flooding, while about twenty per cent of the plastic debris that enters the water comes directly from ships and oil rigs (Whitty 2009). And industrial resin pellets, also called nurdles, the raw material used to make plastic, comprise a staggering eleven per cent of beach litter (Whitty 2009). Each year, undegraded plastic kills approximately 100 000 whales, dolphins, manatees, and seals, about 2 million sea birds, and an undetermined number of sea turtles (Whitty 2009). But as the plastic debris in the ocean starts to degrade, the problem is just beginning. Scientists have raised further concerns about photodegredation, the breakdown of plastic debris into smaller and smaller fragments by sunlight, a process which releases potentially toxic chemicals into the ocean environment (Singh and Sharma 2007).

Microplastics Are No Small Matter

We use plastic products everyday – After all, plastic can be found in everything from our cars to the television sets in our living rooms – but most of us have probably not thought much about what plastic is. Plastic is a type of polymer, a large molecule consisting of many monomers, or repeating units of molecules chemically bonded to one another in what could be thought of as one long molecular chain. There are many different types of plastic and chemical composition depends on the type of plastic (Singh and Sharma 2007). In general, all plastics, whether in the ocean or on dry land, undergo degradation, the deterioration of the physical and chemical properties of a material (Singh and Sharma).

Oceans of Plastic[1] Plastic debris collected from Vancouver beaches during a shoreline cleanup by Vancouver Aquarium volunteers in 2008. How quickly an individual piece of debris degrades varies depending on ocean conditions and chemical composition (Singh and Sharma 2007), but, on average, plastic takes about 450 years to degrade in the ocean (Lawrence 2010) and consumer products like these make up the vast majority of the debris found in the world’s oceans (Lawrence 2010).

But plastic undergoes another type of degradation, and it all has to do with the sun. Solar ultraviolet radiation, more commonly known as UV rays, fragments plastic into smaller and smaller pieces, called microplastics (Betts 2008). Microplastics are plastic particles smaller than five millimetres (Betts 2008), no bigger than a grain of rice or a pencil eraser (Lawrence 2010). Many of these plastic particles remain afloat, but microplastics that have a greater density than seawater sink below the surface and can be found in the water column and the sea bed (Betts 2008). There is some evidence that perhaps the micro organisms responsible for the biodegradation of other materials accumulate on microplastics, increasing the density of the particle and causing it to sink (Lawrence 2010).

Cooking Up a Toxic Soup

As plastic debris breaks down into microplastics, the plastic polymer degrades, releasing potentially dangerous chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) and polystyrene oligomor, breakdown products of plastic, both of which have been shown to disrupt hormone systems and adversely affect reproduction in living organisms (Saido 2009). Due to this fragmentation, a single piece of plastic could remain in the ocean for hundreds or perhaps thousands of years (Betts 2008). This means that ocean garbage patches are more like a toxic soup than a mass of floating debris (Betts 2008). In fact, most of the plastic trash in these regions is so small it is not even visible from the deck of a ship.

Microplastics[2] Debris collected during a surface tow in the North Pacific Gyre. Of the approximately 3 million metric tons of debris in the gyre, about eighty per cent are microplastics, plastic particles less than five millimetres in size (Betts 2008).

But don’t let its small size fool you. The consequences of these chemicals being released as this massive amount of tiny plastic degrades, and how these areas of high concentration of microplastics factor into the equation, are yet to be fully understood. In one recent study, scientists looking at the thermal degradation of polymer mixtures at the Nihon University in Japan found that polystyrene, a type of plastic more commonly known as Styrofoam, degraded to release potentially harmful monomers, the breakdown products of plastic polymers, at temperatures as low as thirty degrees Celsius, a temperature comparable to ocean surface temperature in some regions (Saido 2009). Considering the massive amount of plastic accumulating in the world’s oceans (The total mass of the debris in the North Pacific Gyre is estimated to outnumber the mass of plankton – those microscopic, drifting organisms that provide a crucial food source to larger marine organisms like fish – in the region by six to one (Whitty 2009)), it is probable that a significant amount of potentially harmful chemicals are being released into our seas as this massive amount of plastic continues to degrade…and degrade…and degrade.

As it breaks down at sea, debris (both natural and synthetic materials) accumulates in regions of the ocean due to the organization of ocean currents. Global wind belts influence the movement of ocean surface currents, creating circular loops of moving water called gyres (Trujillo 2010). There are five major ocean gyres, located in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. And while marine debris can be found throughout the world’s oceans, it is in convergence zones, the regions where currents converge or come together near the centre of a gyre, where immense quantities of marine debris can accumulate.

Ocean Gyres There are five major ocean gyres in the world: The North and South Pacific gyres, the North and South Atlantic gyres, and the Indian Ocean Gyre. Blue arrows indicate directionality of ocean currents. Soure: http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/The-Ocean-in-Action/Sci-Media/Images/Map-of-ocean-gyres

A garbage patch is a region of the ocean with a higher than average debris content within the upper water column (Garbage Patches 2010). The oceanic debris field known to many as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, located in the calm centre of the North Pacific Gyre, in a region called the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ) is one of these areas of accumulation. Estimates on the size of the patch range from the size of the state of California right up to a mega patch bigger than the continental United States. It is difficult to obtain an accurate estimate of the patch’s size because it is not a solid mass of debris, but rather a region of the ocean that acts like a vortex, sucking up trash from Asia and the United States and trapping it within.

North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone (STCZ) Marine debris can accumulate in the central region, or convergence zone, of an ocean gyre. One such gyre, the North Pacific Gyre, contains an estimated 3 million metric tons of debris within its convergence zone. This region is the location of a debris field known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. There exists another massive area of debris accumulation in the North Atlantic Gyre that may rival that of the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and scientists predict there could be similar debris-containing regions within other major ocean gyres as well. Source: http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.htm

But how do the planet’s wind currents create these enormous trash-trapping loops in the sea? The simple answer to this complex question begins with something called the Coriolis effect. Our roughly spherical planet is constantly spinning eastwardly, completing one full spin during each twenty-four hour day. And the surface velocity is different, depending where you are on the globe. Earth is a sphere, meaning it has the greatest circumference at the middle, at the Equator, and the smallest circumference at – you guessed it – the poles. Let’s review the classic Coriolis example: Imagine you are standing on the Equator, shooting a projectile toward the North Pole. Will the projectile land east or west of your intended target? It will land to the east, or to the right of your intended target. This is because at the Equator the projectile is moving eastward faster than its target, the North Pole. If the projectile were fired from the North Pole to the Equator it again deflects to the right. This makes sense – The target is located on the Equator and the Equator moves eastward more quickly than the pole, so the target moved eastward before the projectile could reach it. In the southern hemisphere, the opposite is true and the projectile deflects to the left. The Coriolis effect is the deflection of the intended path of an object that is moving within a rotating coordinate system (Coriolis Effect). Put simply, the Earth is a spinning sphere and an object traveling in the north to south direction will undergo deflection to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.

Coriolis Deflection The Earth is a sphere that rotates eastwardly (counter clockwise). The circumference of the Earth is largest at the Equator and smallest at the poles. This means that the Equator travels farther than the poles in the same amount of time. In other words, the whole Earth is moving at the same velocity, but the surface speed is greater at the Equator. An object originating from the North Pole traveling toward the Equator is deflected to the right because the target on the Equator moves eastward before the projectile, which is traveling more slowly at the pole, reaches it (Coriolis Effect). The opposite is true in the southern hemisphere, where objects deflect to the left. Source: http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/glossary/coriolis_effect.html

Going Beneath the Waves: Ekman Transport

The Coriolis effect influences motion over the surface of the Earth, and the prevailing winds that drive ocean surface currents are no exception. It works like this: About two percent of the wind speed is transferred to water at the surface. For example, a fifty knot wind (equivalent to about 92 km/h) produces a surface current of about 2 km/h. This current moves away from the wind source. This concept is a familiar one – Simply blow on the surface of the water in your bathtub and the water moves away from you (the wind source).

The Formation of An Ocean Gyre Water in the northern hemisphere is deflected to the right of the wind source due to the Coriolis effect, resulting in a net transport of surface water ninety degrees to the right of the wind direction. The water continues in the counter clockwise direction, forming a circular loop of moving water called a gyre. Soure: EOSC 314, Lecture 18, M. Lipsen.

But it works a little differently in the ocean than it does in the bath tub. And to look at ocean surface currents we start by looking at what goes on beneath the waves. for these purposes, the ocean surface can be defined as the depth to which the wind penetrates (which is usually about one hundred meters). We know that as the planet spins there is deflection to the right (in the northern hemisphere) and to the left (in the southern hemisphere). But this also occurs in the ocean, where there is a deflection of about ninety degrees to the right of the wind direction, a concept called Ekman Transport. To understand what Ekman Transport means think of the ocean not as one big pool of deep water, but as layers of water piled on top of one another. Waves transfer kinetic energy from the wind to the surface water by the force of friction. Due to the Coriolis effect, each layer of water is deflected (to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere) at a greater angle to the wind source than the layer on top of it, creating a spiral of sea water. The result is a ninety degree net transport, or total movement, of the surface water relative to the direction of the wind. And it is this spiralling behaviour, called the Ekman Spiral, which is caused by Coriolis deflection, that is responsible for the creation of Earth’s major ocean gyres.

Ekman Spiral Energy is transferred from the top of the surface water to the subsurface water with Coriolis deflection. Each subsequent layer of surface water is deflected at a greater angle to the direction of the wind for a net transport of ninety degrees to the right (left) of the wind direction in the northern hemisphere (southern hemisphere). Soure: EOSC 314, Lecture 18, M. Lipsen.

Hilly Mounds of Seawater Hold a Mountain of Garbage

The movement of surface water perpendicular to the prevailing winds pushes water toward the middle of the ocean basins, resulting in mounds. And a mound is just that – a whole pile of seawater. And if you find yourself reminiscing of your childhood days in the sandbox, piling up sand into great big hilly mounds, you are not very far off the mark. If you think of the sand as seawater, this is essentially what wind does to surface water – it piles it up. And these piles of water are actually at a higher elevation than the surrounding surface water, just like the mounds in your sandbox. When surface water in the northern hemisphere is directed ninety degrees to the right of the wind direction, the water is moved in the clockwise direction. And surface water in the southern hemisphere, which is deflected to the left, is pushed in the counter-clockwise direction. Surface currents flow around these mounds, traveling clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere, as they gather the world’s trash in their vast centres.

Mounds of Seawater Ocean surface water is deflected (red arrows) perpendicular to the prevailing winds (yellow arrows). Westerlies cause surface water to move in the opposite direction of the surface water being moved by the trade winds, causing the surface water to pile up in the middle of ocean basins in regions called mounds. These are the locations of ocean gyres, where debris accumulates in ‘ocean landfills.’ Soure: EOSC 314, Lecture 18, M. Lipsen.

Talking Trash

It spans an immense area and it certainly does contain an incredible amount of trash, but the term ‘garbage patch’ is misleading. There are no islands of garbage the size of the state of Texas, no rafts of ocean-faring plastic thick enough to walk across, no floating landfills in the middle of the Pacific ocean…at least not in the traditional sense of the term (Lawrence 2010). What we do know is that debris becomes concentrated in regions of the ocean, such as the North Pacific Gyre, due to the movement of ocean surface currents, which are subject to Earth’s wind currents. But what is not yet fully understood is how the many different types of plastic degrade in the ocean, or even what impact this long degradation process will have on the ocean environment in years to come (Betts 2008).

I don’t dream

of filling my supposed-tos

blaring red numbers won’t wake me

from these dreams

I want to wake up everyday feeling

like

a turtle

riding waves

Purposefully moving

without purpose

The green spot disappears behind a blanket of waves. Strong arms reach from the water, peeling the waves away from the land to drag them back out to sea. The spot becomes visible again. She makes her way down the slippery shoreline towards it. Crouching down, she reaches a finger out to touch this strange green spot on the beach…

As I roll off the side of the boat the world turns itself upside down. The sky becomes the sea and the sea the sky. No longer two seperate entities they exist as one blue piece and I am falling into this water-color painting. Unfinished. My body touches the water, disrupting this smooth pool of dark blue paint that sticks to my fingernails as I peel back its surface and climb inside. I climb down down down and the current pulls me every which way. She waits as a silhouette below.

Her perfect, blue outline is etched into the gray ocean floor. Triangles are her fins. A semicircle makes her smooth, blunt nose and a perfect flick of the pen curls her tail back upon her giant body like a signature ending in ‘y’.

This green thing is not what it seems. She places her hands on the rough, barnacle-coated rock and stretches her body out so that she is lying flat on the frigid shore. The barnacles pierce her flesh as she inches her way forward until her nose is almost touching this creature. This creature vanishes into a deep crevice as the waves leap from the sea and back onto the shore, covering her with a wet coat of blue paint…