There is no such thing as the garbage patch[1]; any such pictures[2] you may have seen are of other areas that are certainly far more polluted (it doesn't change the tragedy of it or the disgusting nature of such things, but it does change the premise of the argument).
There is, however, a significant problem with regards to the micro-plastics and other such small particles floating about in great number. The problem is that no one knows how these are affecting the ecology of the oceans on a large scale[2].
You can't photograph the garbage patch in any meaningful way. It isn't visible. There are more fine plastic particles per cubic meter of water and you are more likely than normal to happen a cross a bit of floating plastic, but a picture doesn't tell the story.
If you have seen pictures of solid garbage on the water, you are probably looking at a large bay in a metropolitan area, say Manila.
You're correct about the garbage patch that's typically talked about in the news, but this article mentions:
> "In a lot of places we couldn't start our motor for fear of entangling the propeller in the mass of pieces of rope and cable. That's an unheard of situation, out in the ocean.
> "On the bow, in the waters above Hawaii, you could see right down into the depths. I could see that the debris isn't just on the surface, it's all the way down. And it's all sizes, from a soft-drink bottle to pieces the size of a big car or truck.
> "We saw a factory chimney sticking out of the water, with some kind of boiler thing still attached below the surface. We saw a big container-type thing, just rolling over and over on the waves.
> "We were weaving around these pieces of debris. It was like sailing through a garbage tip.
I believe the article is talking about ephemeral debris that was sent into the ocean from the 2011 tsunami. What will happen to it in the next 10-20 years is anyone's guess, but factory chimneys aren't something that get thrown overboard or stuffed into municipal landfills.
What this does demonstrate is how one natural disaster can spread signs of human influence and decay for thousands of miles, and it will likely take decades for this stuff to degrade or disperse.
