Researchers and environmentalists are worried over the potential
harm that could be produced from the garbage that already has
begun to wash ashore on the west coast of the United States.
After the tsunami last March that struck Japan killed thousands
of people, a new concern has risen. The waste left over will hit
beaches stretching from Alaska to California's northern coast,
and that much of the debris will remain in a large ocean current
referred to as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch." This reservoir
of garbage circulates about 1,000 miles off the western United
States and has been steadily increasing in size over the past
several decades. But as some mariners explain, oceanic debris is
not isolated to one area or one ocean. "The debris is dispersed.
We have gotten samples from the Indian Ocean, [and] the
Atlantic," according to Captain Charles Moore of the Algalita
Marine Research Organization. "There's plastic in all of these
oceans." But researchers agree that curtailing the amount of
garbage and debri