Did you know there is a patch of the Pacific Ocean so littered with plastic that, taken together, it would be at least the size of Texas? Learning this shocked me. I wrote The Eighth Continent on behalf of National Geographic and Planet Or Plastic, imagining what would happen if all that plastic "invaded" the west coast of North America.

Join me in spreading awareness about plastic's impact on marine (and human) health. Enter the Planet or Plastic contest with the #PlanetOrPlastic tag and a story of 500 words or less. You can't really lose. You need clean oceans, too!