The Gross Truth About Garbage Gyres

Great Garbage Gyre

Besides affecting climate, ocean currents carry materials floating in the ocean. Which are most damaging?

• organic materials that break down

• nonbiodegradable that don't break down

• food scraps

• dead ocean organisms

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-6

Great Garbage Gyre

People think these are large floating patches of garbage, but a better description is that it is like plastic_____________.

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-5

NGSS.MS-PS1-3

Plastic Soup

They can tell where trash enters the currents and gyres. Much of the trash is ____________________ coming from Japan.

• potatoes

• fishing hooks

• fishing nets

• plastic water bottles

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS3-3

Ocean Dump

Microplastics bioaccumulate, which means sea creatures eat them. Then, humans eat these sea creatures, which means we also ingest those microplastics. Microplastics have been found in human __________ and ________.

• feces and lungs

• skeletons and brain

• hands and feet

• skin and toes

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS1-5

Five Garbage Patches

The largest garbage patch caught in a gyre is the ____________

• Great Atlantic Garbage Patch

• Carribean Sea patch

• Indian patch

• Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Tags

NGSS.MS-LS2-5

Cleanup

If no more garbage was added to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it would take _______________ years to clean it up.