This story sounds like something that will soon be debunked by Snopes.com:
It has been described as the world’s largest rubbish dump, or the Pacific plastic soup, and it is starting to alarm scientists.
It is a vast area of plastic debris and other flotsam drifting in the northern Pacific Ocean, held there by swirling ocean currents.
Discovered in 1997 by American sailor Charles Moore, what is also called the great Pacific garbage patch is now alarming some with its ever-growing size and possible impact on human health.
My first thought was to get on Google Earth and look this sucker up. But, conveniently, that won’t work:
Because the plastic is translucent and lies just beneath the surface, it is apparently undetectable by satellite photos.
Further:
“The material is breaking down continually. It is photodegrading all the time. It is what I call a kaleidoscope or an alphabet soup. You won’t see it from a satellite shot of the ocean. You only see it from the bows of ships,” he says.
Also conveniently, the “garbage patch” is in an area of ocean that has few fish and little boat traffic:
The garbage in the patch circulates around the North Pacific Gyre, the world’s largest.
A lack of big fish and light winds mean it’s an area of the Pacific less travelled by fishing boats and yachts.
