• UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    The Patch was hypothesized in 1988 and first documented in 1997, by a passing yacht racer. Research on the patch began in earnest in 2009.

    Estimates on the size are still nebulous, as it continues to expand and shift. But I doubt anyone in the 1970s was predicting a patch of trash twice the size of Texas would appear in the Pacific Ocean over the next 50 years.

        • Hueristic_Autistic@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          Then you get a cleansing and then you go to the er and call yourself a dumbass and then hope to god the intravenous antifungal work.

          No, honestly I don’t know but you can buy a syringe of liquid culture that contains a strain of a plastic eating mushroom and the warning on the site is to not store it in a plastic fridge. You could find the plastic pile and then toss a jar of that culture on it and then toss your boat because it’s probably been hit with the liquid culture.

    • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      This was actually renamed to the Great American Garbage Patch

      Also wish more effort and attention went into countries coming together to clean this up, and simultaneously stop any new trash from entering into our waters.