The Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone is a large circulating current in the North Pacific that is home to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The Garbage Patch, or Pacific Trash Vortex, contains many different types of marine debris trapped in this strong current. As described by Greenpeace, the Trash Vortex is " an area the size of Texas in the North Pacific in which an estimated six kilos of plastic for every kilo of natural plankton, along with other slow degrading garbage, swirls slowly around like a clock, choked with dead fish, marine mammals, and birds who get snared. Some plastics in the gyre will not break down in the lifetimes of the grandchildren of the people who threw them away." As this area is clearly damaging to surrounding ocean ecosystems, Mission Blue declared it as one of their Hope Spots in the fall of 2013.
