Massive garbage patch

Massive garbage patch

Credit: Algalita

About 15 years after first discovering the great Pacific garbage patch, Capt. Charles Moore returned in 2014 and discovered that semi-permanent islands made of ropes, buoys and other detritus were forming in the region.

Trash island

Trash island

Credit: Algalita

Here, an up-close look at the "Shark Island" (so named because of its appearance). Buoys, anchors and ropes washed to sea when the 2011 Japanese Tsunami inundated aquaculture boats may have formed the island, researchers hypothesize.

Trash adrift

Trash adrift

Credit: Algalita

Moore first discovered the trash while returning from a yacht race in 1997. Here, a gas tank bobs in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Larger extent

Larger extent

Credit: Algalita

In a new expedition, Moore's team has found plastic debris in places they didn't expect to.

Trawling for trash

Trawling for trash

Credit: Sea Education Association

A scientist on another expedition trawls for trash in the ocean.

Secret life

Secret life

Credit: Erik Zettler, SEA

Past research has found that a secret world of microbes and microorganisms lives on the plastic detritus in the ocean. Here, scientist Greg Boyd (from a separate expedition) shows the sea life that has colonized foam floats.

Deeper Ocean

Deeper Ocean

Credit: MBARI

A 2014 paper found that the ocean plastic is mysteriously disappearing, possibly because it is being carried deep into the ocean, like this trash bag found deep below an underwater canyon off the coast of Monterey, California.