The real problem is that the plastic isn't just large pieces of debris like bottles and discarded fishing nets.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. More than 90 percent of the plastics in the GPGP are microplastics. Azure waves lapping against huge piles of built-up junk.

The open ocean has new inhabitants ...

You've probably seen the photos: a sea turtle trapped in fishing line, a plastic bottle wedged in coral, and shorelines littered with packaging. That's not some distant problem. The same waste tossed ...

Most people know plastic pollution is bad news. But a group of scientists says that we should pause all ocean plastic cleanup ...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Scientists say a new study is now revealing that one of the largest patches of pollution on the planet is also teaming with life. And they're trying to learn what it means for the ...

In 1996 Captain Charles Moore, a citizen scientist and founder of the Algalita Marine Research and Education Foundation, stumbled upon what came to be known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- a ...

Scientists from UCSD will leave this weekend to explore a massive, nasty blob in the North Pacific that has been reported being the size of Texas or larger. Scripps Institution of Oceanography ...

There's an 80,000-ton monster lurking in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and California and it's still getting bigger, NBC News reported. Arguably more frightening than any shark, the Great Pacific ...