“Where were these photos taken?”
Gabriel pulled out a tablet and called up an atlas, then tapped in the coordinates as he spoke. When he was done, he spun the tablet around so they could see the image of the ocean, with the coordinates highlighted. “One hundred thirty-five degrees West . . . thirty-five degrees North.”
“The Eastern Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” Peter whispered.
Misty seemed to be searching her memory banks. “I’ve heard of that.”
Peter spun his fingers in a swirl over the tablet. “There’s a current called the North Pacific Gyre that swirls through the Pacific in a circle. And this, the Eastern Garbage Patch, is a giant whirlpool of plastic trash smack between Hawaii and California.” A large oval representing the gyre glowed and revolved slowly in the middle of the ocean. “A lot of what we throw away breaks down and winds up there.”
“Right.” Misty remembered now. “It’s a disaster for sea life, too. So how big is it?”
“About the size of Texas,” Gabriel said. “Three hundred thousand square miles. Give or take.”
“Yeah, so that’s . . . big.” Peter looked off. Gabriel could see him running calculations in his head, and then he looked back and laughed. “It would take the Obscure thirty hours just to get to the edge of that thing.”
*****
“Gabe? We’re reaching the Garbage Patch.”
“Really?”
Gabriel reached the bridge a minute or two ahead of Misty, who rubbed her face and shook off whatever sleep she’d had as she reached her console. The Obscure was running along the surface as Gabriel gazed at the view screen, which still showed endless Pacific blue ahead.
“Yep.” Peter threw the sonar up and it took over half the screen. As the sonar line swept around the clocklike circles, countless speckles flickered dully. “It covers the ocean up ahead. And it’ll keep going.”
A new ping appeared at the top edge of the sonar screen—a thick mass that indicated something with a lot of weight. “Hello,” Gabriel said. “What’s that?”
Peter touched his headphones. “It’s not making any noise. If it’s a craft, it’s not running.
In fact it’s not moving.”
“Could it be a fishing vessel?” Gabriel asked. “Maybe they’re anchored.”
“If so, I’d be hearing all kinds of things. Tools, machinery, generators.”
“Besides,” added Misty, “would a fishing boat be all the way out here?”
Gabriel shrugged. “Could it be a whale?”
Gabriel felt the ship rising as water rushed out of the walls and tanks, and something caught his ear. “What’s that noise?”
*****
According to National Geographic, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a "collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in the ocean, seas, and other large bodies of water." This marine debris is mostly plastic, as you can see from the photos below.
In Young Captain Nemo, the characters, including the descendent of Jules Vernes's famous character Captain Nemo, have to work to save the ocean.
"Armed with his wits, his friends, and his Nemotech submarine, a twelve-year-old descendant of Jules Verne’s famous antihero is determined to help make the ocean a safer place one adventure at a time in Jason Henderson's Young Captain Nemo, first in a new middle-grade series."
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