Between southern California and Hawaii is the North Pacific Gyre, where the water currents create a slow moving vortex. These currents have drawn in vast amount of garbage and mainly plastic in the past 100 years, which has won it the name "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch".
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is over twice the size of the U.S. and will surely grow if we do not take every effort we can to clean up this mess.
Not only is it a danger to marine life, but to tourists and fishermen. Plastics are not biodegradable, and so they may break down from sunlight over time, but remain plastic and release harmful chemicals. They are often mistaken as food by many marine animals which they may die from, or eventually get into the food chain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co43TXJXryI
