During the study, more than 64,000 pieces of plastic were collected in nets towed along the ocean’s surface between Newfoundland, Canada and the Caribbean Sea.
Credit: SEA/Skye Moret
Plastic pieces collected in a surface plankton net tow. Pieces are typically millimetre-sized fragments of once-larger items.
Credit: SEA/Giora Proskurowski
SYDNEY: Humans are dumping more plastic than ever, but not all of it is accumulating in the garbage patches of the Atlantic as expected, scientists reported.
Of the millions of metric tons of plastic produced annually, an enormous proportion ends up as tiny debris in the open ocean. The currents loosely gather it together in vast, swirling ‘garbage patches’ near the surface.
But the amount of floating plastic accumulating in the Atlantic Ocean has remained curiously static over the last two decades, in spite of the fact that plastic waste by humans has increased significantly over the same timeframe, according to a new study published in the journal Science.
Study took 22 years
“Surprisingly, over the 22-year period of the study (1986-2008) we did not observe an increase in the amount of plastic floating in the western Atlantic in the region where it is most highly concentrated,” said Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association and lead author of the study.
Plastic debris has been accumulating in the world’s oceans for decades, but until recently we have had only a peripheral understanding of its extent.
A major pollutant, plastics have far reaching environmental impacts in the ocean, including entanglement of marine fauna, particle ingestion by seabirds and other organisms, dispersal of invasive species to non-native waters and the transport of organic contaminants.
Manually counted 64,000 plastic pieces
The researchers discovered that while highest concentrations of plastic debris occurred in an area where ocean-surface currents converge - the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre - over the last two decades there has not been a substantial increase in the overall amount.
During the study, more than 64,000 pieces of plastic were collected in nets towed along the ocean’s surface between Newfoundland, Canada and the Caribbean Sea.
Researchers used tweezers to pick the small plastic bits out of the algae and other collected material, and then manually counted the plastic particles: 88% were less than 10 millimetres, and there were likely to be many smaller pieces of plastic that passed through the mesh net used in the study.
Where did all that plastic go?
Although most plastic enters the ocean from land, owing to surface current patterns, the highest concentrations of plastic debris were found far offshore. However, there were no strong trends in plastic concentrations in the data-set over-time.
Barnacles
I would venture to guess, that barnacles and creatures of that sort are landing in the plastic bits and grabbing hold of them. They bob along the current growing on the floating plastic and accumulating a calcium shell. Eventually, the barnacles grow so heavy that the plastic can no longer float and the whole barnacle 'colony' sinks. If they happen to be in shallow enough water, they continue their life cycles on the bottom of the sea. If they are in deep water, they sink to their doom.
Making plastics safe
More research is not required to know that plastics are an ecological disaster. A little common sense, perhaps? The idea of finding safe ways to dispose of plastic is nonsense. The only way plastics can be made safe is by not manufacturing them. They always end up as pollution in one form or another. How can pollution ever be safe? This brings up a closely related issue. The only safe place for oil, the fuel of manufacturing plastic, as well as its raw material, is in the ground. It also always becomes pollution, toxic waste, in fact. Think about it.
Gene
Plastic
When I spent time on the beach in Honduras in 1984 I found particles of "sand" that were plastic. Tiny clear to white beads. It breaks up into tiny pieces and becomes like grains of sand similar to old glass.