♤ The world's oceans are full of trash, causing "tremendous" negative impacts on coastal life and ecology. Plastic makes up about 80 percent of the ocean trash collected in some areas of the world

♤ Most of the garbage accumulates in five little-explored "patches" found in the doldrums of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

♤ The largest is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which starts a few hundred miles off the coast of North America and stretches to a few hundred miles off the coast of Japan; a more concentrated area lies between California and Hawaii.

♤ In these cases the harm to fish and other sea creatures is increasing.

♤ Only about 20 percent of ocean plastic comes from marine sources, such as discarded fishing equipment or cargo ship mishaps. About 80 percent of it washes out to sea from beach litter or was carried downstream in rivers.