Not many people are aware of the huge environmental occurrence that is taking place in the Pacific. Plastic of all kind has worked its way into a soup like substance that is over twice the size of continental United States. Plastic is supposed to break down eventually but the ocean water exceedingly slows down this process. In fact, every piece of plastic that has been in the ocean for the last 50 years is still there today. The plastic breaks down into tiny pieces that the fish mistakes this as plankton and eats it. When the fish gets eaten by bigger fish they take the plastic and it works its way up the food chain and onto our dinner plate. This is also a health issue because these large plastic bunches attracts a lot of toxic chemicals to it.

In addition, millions of birds have been dying because they have been mistaking plastic for food. This creates an unbalanced ecosystem which is yet another environmental issue. Not all the plastic is floating above the water though; most of it is under the surface or on the ocean floor. The creatures on the floor are struggling to survive in these areas because the plastic takes up space that coral and plants could be growing. There is then no habitat and no food for the creatures so they slowly start to die off and sooner or later there will be huge areas of ocean where there is no aquatic life at all. The plastic can also form raffs which animals sometime hitch a ride on. Once again, the plastic causes another huge issue because these animals can float to other bodies of lands and invade a totally different habitat, unsettling the balance and becoming a possible threat the natural animals there. It is predicted that in the next decade the American consumer rate for plastic use will grow as much as a third. With an already growing plastic dump in the ocean, this could be the final push that would seriously cause disastrous results all around the world. If we don’t take action soon by using recyclable materials and avoiding plastic as much as possible, a plastic filled ocean could soon be in our future.