It is rumored that there is a huge patch out in the middle of the North Pacific where winds and currents accumulate massive amounts of trash. Some have suggested it is over 100 meters thick and so substantial that you can walk on it. I have no idea whether or not it is true, but we just motored thru the central region of the North Pacific high where one would expect to find such a thing if it exists.
While I can’t attest to having seen anything like that, what I can tell you is that we did encounter enormous amounts of garbage along our route. Some might have been from the Japanese tsunami but that was forecast to be east of our route.
Most appeared to be fishing related. Lots of floats and marker buoys. We would literally motor along for hours with buoys and balls on either side of us every 1/4 or mile or so. At night, since they were invisible, we would occasionally here the small bang as they hit the hull.
Many had obviously been in the water a long time with beards of sea growth on them.
What struck us was that we were over 1000 nautical from land and these errant objects were still our there – lots of them.
Not the great Pacific Garbage Patch but distressing none the less. It lives on long after it escaped its original purpose.