The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter that ends up in oceans, seas, and other large bodies of water. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific trash vortex, spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The patch is actually comprised of the Western Garbage Patch, located near Japan, and the Eastern Garbage Patch, located between the U.S. states of Hawaii and California.

You dive down into a undersea meadow. Surrounded by blades of seagrass up to a meter tall, you begin to notice the abundant life all around. Schools of baby fish hide within the grassy maze as emerald sea slugs graze algae off the blades. Seagrass is an ocean-dwelling flowering plant, which provides a home for countless creatures. But these habitats are threatened around the world.

This episode of Sea Grant's Voice of the Sea series take us inland to explore how rising sea level affects infrastructure, aquifers, and fresh water supplies."

Sea level rise is already redrawing coastlines around the world. What happens when the coast retreats through a major city? We look at how the world map will change in the year 2100, and what coastal cities can do to defend themselves.

Salt marshes fringe much of the world's low-lying coasts. They act as a first line of defence against storm surge waves, reducing storm water levels and the run up of waves on landward sea defences. As a result, vulnerable shorelines and engineered coastal defences are at lower risk of suffering under the impact of climate change, for example through sea level rise and intense storms.

The San Francisco Bay's wetlands are disappearing at an alarming rate due to encroaching development, leaving the local ecosystem at risk. Moreover, the wetlands can store as much carbon as a tropical rainforest, an invaluable asset in the effort to slow global warming. Sonia Aronson of the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs takes a look at a new and contentious proposed tax to save the bay.

Laura Bankey, Director of Conservation at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, guides us through the Fort McHenry Wetland. This 7-acre protected marsh was created in the 1980's as mitigation for the Fort McHenry Tunnel, and it provides critical habitat for wildlife in this heavily industrialized portion of the Chesapeake Bay. However, trash and debris are a major problem that must be managed through the help of community volunteers.

The relationship between climate change and migration is complex, tied up in a set of factors that impact people's need, ability and willingness to move. Target 13.3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) calls for improved education, awareness-raising, human and institutional capacity to address climate change mitigation, adaptation, and early warning.

Where do we stand concerning the research on the effects of plastic on the human body? What can we conclude from today's talks? What should be the next steps for both research and policy? In this closing session of the Plastic Health Summit, we will reiterate the answers to preliminary questions regarding plastic and human health and give you a summary of the world's first Plastic Health Summit.

What do a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean and the Antarctic have in common? Unfortunately, it's marine debris. Even the most remote locations on Earth are fouled by man-made garbage and cast-outs. And a majority of the debris that's found comes from land-based sources.