Summary: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Present Technology
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) has caused a lot of problems. People have come up with ideas as to how we can fix the problem in a cost effective and plausible way. One of the major concerns is the wildlife in the oceans. Marine biologists use devices such a waterproof cameras to track the movements and habits of marine life. This may allow us to see how the trash is affecting the animals in their habitats but can be disrupted if there is to high of a concentration of trash in the water. Marine biologists also use biostatistical programs and microcomputers to enter in information that tracks the animals. It can be shared with other scientists. While marine biologists and animal rescue teams are saving animals lives
Since 2009, Project Kaisei has gone on three expeditions and has teamed up with other research groups such as Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In hopes of being able to understand the vortex in our oceans, they have sailed into the GPGP and have done much research in order to find a solution to how we can clean up this mess. They have used techniques such as purse seining. Purse seining is a large net that that can be up to 650 feet deep and it attached to a boat. When the target area is found the boat encircles it and the bottom of the net is pulled tight so nothing can escape. They also use trawls, which is basically a large net attached to two boats, one on each side. Like the purse seining, the net closes but instead of closing on the bottom it closes on the top. The problem with this is that the trash that is smaller than the holes in the net
Boyan Slat is a Dutch entrepreneur and founder and the CEO of The Ocean Cleanup project. This invention consists of a V-shaped boom that is situated in a gyre. This will allow the ocean to clean itself when the water circulates into the boom. Attached to the boom is a non-permeable net. It does not allow anything to pass through and will capture all the plastic that floats to the top of the water. It lets sea life swim under it and does not prevent proper water flow. In the center of the V there is a platform that takes in all the plastic and holds it until it is picked up by humans. While this technology does work for retrieving all plastic that floats to the top of the water, we still need to worry about that water below that level. Also, this technology is great in the sense that the ocean can clean itself but we also have to clean other areas of water that have been polluted by trash such as lakes and rivers because someday that trash will be apart of the GPGP and we need to prevent it before this