.Some scientists think it’s as large as the United States, but almost no one noticed it until 1997.
Then, an adventurer named Charles Moore made a shocking discovery, and scientists learned the ugly truth.
Moore was the captain of a sailboat that had just completed a race.
The usual route went south, then east.
The winds are strong there, and boats move quickly.
He decided to sail directly east - a slow route with weak winds.
This region gets few visitors, so Moore was sailing into almost unknown waters
What Moore found in the lonely North Pacific was a shock.
Floating under the ocean’s surface was a “soup” of plastic garbage.
It was thick with billions of tiny plastic the size of apple seeds.