South Pacific Ocean

Massive South Pacific Ocean garbage patch ‘a dead place’

Captain Charles Moore, who led the mission around Easter Island and Robinson Crusoe Island, said the South Pacific gyre is at least 1 million square kilometres in size.

He said the garbage patch, which is mostly made up of millions of tiny fragments of plastic and waste from the fishing industry, is probably the most deserted marine environment on the planet.

"And that marine desert phenomenon was more dramatic than I've ever seen in the South Pacific."