Question

How could tides and ocean currents move plastics around the ocean?

Answer 1

The plastic trash gets transported all through the planet with the help of ocean currents. The term Great Pacific Garbage Patch was first named by Captain Charles Moore. He found that huge intact substances like cups, bottles, boxes, bags, and fishing nets, and other millions of smaller pieces of plastic over an estimated region covering about 650000 to 16000000 square kilometers.  

The garbage patches are witnessed in the oceans of the world wherever there is gyre. The gyres refer to the enormous circulating regions of water comprising the prime surface currents of the globe, mediated by the existing winds. The plastics would have got caught up in a gyre and would have been ended up in a region, known as the garbage patch.  

The currents present in the gyre take in the floating substance from around the periphery and trap it in the center. The currents and waves dissociate the plastic components into smaller pieces, however, it never goes away, and gets transported to different regions with the help of currents.  

The ocean currents mediate and transport useful things like organic nutrients, heat energy, and marine species from one location to another of the planet. However, at the same time, they can also transport other unnecessary floating things like plastic garbage.  

The plastic, mainly the larger pieces that float on the surface are transported at a faster rate than the water present beneath it, this is because the wind that moves the current also moves the plastic. In this sense, the plastic is flowing freely all over the ocean surfaces of the globe.