here's a toy leg from a -- a baby. flip-flops. >> reporter: not items from a la landfill but from the ocean. more specific, the indian ocean, essentially a garbage patch swirling with trash and overflowing with plastic. the massive rotating current spins counterclockwise. marcus erickson is the director of research in california. he says geyers are like plastic soup. >> that's typical of what the material looks like. >> reporter: in 2010, he sailed through the indian ocean geyer. the same area where search teams are looking for doomed flight 370. >> what we found there were things like derelict fishing nets, multicolored buoys. the little buoys like the one behind me. lots of buckets and crates. other goods like bottles and bottle cap and bags and forks and knives. there was so much stuff already there. the aircraft, when they debriefed the aircraft, it's