The basics of the ocean you should know. All sorts of things about the sea that you might suddenly wonder about.

｜vol.05｜

Lots of garbage are dumped in the city, flowing from waterways into rivers, and eventually into the sea.
What happens to trash once it's released into the ocean?

A.The 99% piece of debris that was swept into the sea is missing.。

Plastic bottles washed ashore on the beach, and plastic waste floating on the surface of the sea.
However, that's only a small fraction of the trash in the ocean.

Recent studies have shown that of the plastics that end up in the ocean,
Only 1% of it floats on the surface of the ocean.
It turns out that the remaining approximately 99% are simply "missing."

Where did it end up?
Most are shattered into pieces by waves and ultraviolet rays.
These microplastics are so tiny they are invisible to the naked eye and accumulate in the deep sea and in the mud on the ocean floor.

In some areas of the ocean, large amounts of debris accumulate due to eddies in ocean currents.
特に有名なのが、カリフォルニアとハワイの間に広がる「太平洋ごみベルト」。
Its area is about four times that of Japan.
The total weight of the garbage is equivalent to that of approximately 500 jumbo jets.

● Learn from books
For those who wish to learn more, please also check out the following books.
We also have a document produced by Minato Lab about high school students who tackled the problem of marine debris.

・"Our Problems We Couldn't Solve: The Sea, Garbage, and High School Students / Petol and the Black Shadow"
(By Plastic Whale, published by 3710Lab, 2022)
・"The Truth About the Marine Plastic Waste Problem (DOJIN Selection: 86)"
(Atsuhiko Isobe, Kagaku Doujin, 2020)
・"The Sea of Plastic Soup: The North Pacific Garbage Patch Warns Us"
(By Charles Moore, published by NHK Publishing, 2012)

Graphic Design・Text: 3710Lab