Pacific Garbage Patch

There was another article in the NY Times posted yesterday regarding the whirlpool of garbage, now roughly twice the size of Texas, in a remote region of the Pacific Ocean.

PCBs, DDT and other toxic chemicals cannot dissolve in water, but the plastic absorbs them like a sponge. Fish that feed on plankton ingest the tiny plastic particles…Scientists speculate that toxic chemicals are leaching into fish tissue from the plastic they eat…
Researchers measure the amount of plastic in each sample and calculate the weight of each fragment. They also test the tissues of any fish caught in the nets to measure for toxic chemicals. One rainbow runner from a previous voyage had 84 pieces of plastic in its stomach.