Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Now Three Times The Size Of France
A huge, swirling pile of trash in the Pacific Ocean is growing faster than expected and is now three times the size of France. Ghost nets, or discarded fishing nets, make up almost half the 80,000 tonnes of garbage floating at sea, and researchers believe that around 20 percent of the total volume of trash is debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami. The study, conducted by an international team of scientists with The Ocean Cleanup Foundation, six universities and an aerial sensor company, utilised two aircraft surveys and 30 vessels to cross the debris field.
