The man who discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch will speak today and tomorrow at two free public events.

Charles Moore discovered the huge expanse of garbage in 1997, on a sailing voyage from Hawai'i to California. His research, which found six times more plastic than plankton in the central Pacific, shocked the world.

The "patch" is roughly twice the size of Texas and contains some 3.5 million tons of trash.

It is floating midway between Hawai'i and San Francisco.

Moore will speak today at the state Capitol auditorium, from 6:30 to 9 p.m.

His talk is called "Zero Waste? The Ocean Can't Wait."

Tomorrow, Moore will speak at the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve Theatre, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., on "Synthetic Polymers Entering the Marine Food Web," touching on how society's trash has impacted oceans over the last 50 years.