North Atlantic garbage patch
Large floating field of debris in the North Atlantic Ocean / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about North Atlantic garbage patch?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The North Atlantic garbage patch is a garbage patch of man-made marine debris found floating within the North Atlantic Gyre, originally documented in 1972.[1] A 22-year research study conducted by the Sea Education Association estimates the patch to be hundreds of kilometers across, with a density of more than 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometer.[2][3][4][5] The garbage originates from human-created waste traveling from rivers into the ocean and mainly consists of microplastics.[6] The garbage patch is a large risk to wildlife (and to humans) through plastic consumption and entanglement.[7]
There have only been a few awareness and clean-up efforts for the North Atlantic garbage patch, such as The Garbage Patch State at UNESCO and The Ocean Cleanup, as most of the research and cleanup efforts have been focused on the Great Pacific garbage patch, a similar garbage patch in the north Pacific.[8][9]