The largest garbage vortex: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

What do you get if you mentally triple the size of France? A huge area: the estimated size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. This is a huge garbage patch full of plastic in the North Pacific, which consists largely of ghost nets. How does all the plastic get there, what are these nets all about and what can you do to protect the oceans from plastic? Read on!

What exactly is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located in the North Pacific and consists of two zones in which garbage accumulates. The reason why the garbage accumulates in these places is due to the ocean currents. The North Pacific Gyre runs clockwise across the entire North Pacific. Any garbage can hardly escape this gyre because the Oyashio Current in the north and the Equatorial Current in the south keep spitting the garbage back into the North Pacific Gyre. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is constantly growing. It is the largest and most famous garbage patch in the world, along with four others in the South Pacific, North and South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean.

(Global environmental problems infographics.)

How big is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?

But how big is the problem of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? We have just heard: According to estimates, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is three times the size of France, alternatively one could say four and a half times the size of Germany. The first study that examined this was conducted in 2018, so the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is even larger today.

The amount of plastic waste in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is enormous. 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which means an average of 230 pieces for every single person on earth. Many of these pieces are tiny and are considered microplastics. Marine fauna often mistake the plastic pieces for food and ingest them. The result: Since fish, birds and other animals cannot digest the plastic, they die.

The Problem of Ghost Nets

The problem of ghost nets is of course particularly relevant for us at BRACENET. These are old fishing nets that have either been lost at sea or deliberately sunk in the sea. They are among the most dangerous plastic waste there is, because they keep on fishing and killing countless marine animals. And now comes a shocking number: 46% of the plastic waste in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is made up of ghost nets . Yes, old fishing nets make up almost half of them. It's high time to recover them and put an end to the ghost net nightmare!

By the way: recovering and disposing of ghost nets is our daily business. Take a look at our upcycling products and help us save the oceans!

In upcycling handcraft, we process recovered ghost nets into new products such as bracelets, key chains and dog leashes

How the Ocean Voyages Institute is tackling the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Here comes the Ocean Voyages Institute in play. The organization goes out to the North Pacific every year to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In 2020 alone, the Ocean Voyages Institute fished 170 tons of garbage out of the plastic vortex, mainly ghost nets - and in total the team has already recovered almost 350 tons (as of April 2023). To recover the garbage, the Ocean Voyages Institute attaches GPS transmitters to ghost nets - in the assumption that the ghost nets would lead them to more garbage with the ocean currents. The assumption has been proven, as larger quantities have been recovered more effectively.

Clean-up on the Open Sea 2020

Partnerships against the plastic flood

We have partnered closely with many organizations to save the oceans from plastic waste. Among other things, we made two bracenets from the nets recovered by the Ocean Voyages Institute and donated over 3,500 euros to their mission.

Would you also like to help rid the oceans of the ghost nets? Then take a look at our Bracenets over! We make all of these bracelets by hand from recovered ghost nets or used fishing nets. We regularly donate the proceeds to Healthy Seas to finance recovery missions and preventive measures and support many other projects to protect the oceans and marine animals. So far, we have donated a total of over 220,000 euros (as of 04/2023).

How about our bestsellers Baltic Sea , Red Sea or North Sea ? Or if you prefer something more simple, for your Sea Shepherd Bracenet From our Black Sea fishing net we donate 2 € to Sea Shepherd Germany.

A bracenet made from fishing nets from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

What you can do to combat marine pollution

• Avoid using plastic in your everyday life as much as possible . Germany exports a large part of its recyclable waste to Asia . This then potentially ends up in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
• Avoid industrially caught fish . Large fisheries contribute to species extinction at and threaten our seas with their giant ships.
• Speak up: There are always petitions against single-use plastic in the wholesale trade. Do your part to protect our oceans.
• Make a visible statement with our Bracenets and help us save the oceans. Because ghost nets and microplastics are a threat to everyone, not just animals!