The first thing to know about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is that it's not a single, solid mass.
"It should actually be something that's thought of more as a plastic smog," says Kirsten Mathison, marketing and events coordinator for the Maritime Museum of British Columbia.
The Victoria museum is currently featuring an exhibit about the garbage patch, a dense collection of plastic in the Pacific Ocean that is twice the size of Texas.
It's the largest accumulation of human-made trash in the world, but it's not the only one. Other garbage patches exist elsewhere in the planet's oceans, Mathison said.
The goal of the maritime museum exhibit is to tell the story of the largest patch, in the hope of not only educating people about how it came to be, but also of inspiring them to make changes to their own habits.
"It's important because this is a phenomenon that is affecting our oceans and our landscapes and our environment, and it's something that every person has a direct influence on," Mathison said. "We all use plastic. It's something that is just part of our day-to-day life in everything that we touch and use."
She said the response to the exhibit from museum visitors has been positive so far.
"I think plastic as an issue is something that's really entered the global consciousness and the Canadian consciousness in the last year," Mathison said. "People are really interested in learning more."
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch exhibit will be featured until Oct. 27.
