The majority of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is discarded fishing gear.

4k Upvotes

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Micro plastics are everywhere. It wouldn’t be a garbage patch if it was made of micro plastics. It would just the the ocean.

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u/seaspirit331 Aug 12 '21

The microplastics that make up the pacific garbage patch are kept there by a series of ocean currents called the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre and are drawn into the center of the fringes of the gyre where they are concentrated into these garbage patches

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u/IMx03 Aug 12 '21

Most of the garbage in the ocean is from fishing nets.

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u/seaspirit331 Aug 12 '21

Is there a source for this claim?

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u/Farmer771122 Aug 12 '21

if you copy/paste his comment into google, the first result is this:

https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/ghost-fishing-gear

which says

More than 12 million tons of plastic end up in our seas every year. Plastic pollution plagues every corner of the ocean and despite growing awareness, the problem is only getting worse. Fishing gear accounts for roughly 10% of that debris: between 500,000 to 1 million tons of fishing gear are discarded or lost in the ocean every year. Discarded nets, lines, and ropes now make up about 46% of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

So there's the source. He wasn't entirely accurate, but his sentiment is close.

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u/seaspirit331 Aug 12 '21

And if you do a basic Google Scholar search for plastics sources in the marine environment, you'll come across publications like this one

From the article "MPs are abundant in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, with about 1.69 trillion (94%) floating pieces that are microplastics."

Later on in the same article "About 80% of plastic pieces in the ocean originated from the terrestrial environment"

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u/Kagrok Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21

94% of the pieces are microplastics does not mean 94% of the mass are microplastics

If I had 1 piece of fish and some steamed rice on a plate you could say that 99% of the pieces of food on my plate are rice, and 50% of the food mass is fish.

it's not really intuitive but the Potato Paradox is even crazier

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u/IMx03 Aug 12 '21

It’s a fact. If you want to know, do your own research.

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u/Froskr Aug 12 '21 edited Aug 12 '21

Hey dumbass, if you make a claim, you are responsible for showing evidence. It's the most basal form of keeping yourself from looking like a conspiracy nutjob.

Also, fuck you, you're wrong

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u/hollytot Aug 12 '21

So while I agree that the statement was wrong, I honestly don't agree that it you make a claim, you have to provide evidence.

Like I can say black men are jailed more frequently than white men and if you want proof, all you have to do is Google, imo. I mean I'd make such a comment based on fact, which I know is where it's different from this case, but just wanted to say it's also not always my job to like educate people who disagree with me.

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u/Froskr Aug 12 '21

Yeah you're right, context matters. But there is a lot of nuance that goes into it as well. Especially in topics that create false narratives like the seaspiracy. In the end no one ever actually "just googles it" after being told too though, it more commonly reaffirms their misguided beliefs because they think "oh they didn't actually have proof, they just told me to find some" even in obvious points like the example you gave.

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u/hollytot Aug 12 '21

But unfortunately, when you provide research, it doesn't necessarily make the person agree any more with you, in my experience. So there's kinda no reason to go through the effort when they are probably dug in their opinion anyway