Horrific image reveals toll of 269,000 tons of plastic that litter our seas
‘There’s much more plastic pollution out there than recent estimates suggest,’ he said. ‘It’s everything you can imagine made of plastic.’
The team, whose research is published in the journal PLOS One, used nets to scoop up plastic from oceans all over the world, as well as collecting data.
A computer simulation of floating debris dispersal i ndicated that the world’s oceans contained at l east 5.25trillion plastic pieces weighing 268,940 tons, ranging from tiny particles less than a millimetre wide to larger fragments measuring up to a foot.
The researchers said plastic litter enters the oceans from rivers and heavily populated coastal regions as well as from vessels navigating shipping lanes.
Much of the debris was made up of plastic bags. An estimated 100billion of them are used each year in Europe – with 8billion ending up as litter.
The Daily Mail has long been campaigning for tough action to reduce plastic bag waste.
The scientists wrote: ‘ This is the first study that compares all sizes of floating plastic in the world’s oceans from the largest items to small microplastics.
‘Plastics of all sizes were found in all ocean regions, converging in accumulation zones in the sub-tropical gyres [areas of ocean circulation].’ FIVE trillion pieces of plastic litter are floating in the world’s oceans, which is killing countless animals a year, damning research has revealed. In the most comprehensive study of its kind, researchers calculated that 269,000 tons of plastic are clogging up the oceans – weighing the equivalent of two large cruise liners.
Scientists reported finding billions of plastic shopping bags, bottles, toys, action figures, toothbrushes, fishing gear and even toilet seats floating in the waves.
Conservationists have long called for tough action to get to grips with our horrendous litter problem.
Plastic pollution kills huge numbers of seabirds, marine mammals and other creatures, while discarded fishing nets trap dolphins, sea turtles and manta rays.
Fragments also lodge in the throats and digestive tracts of animals, attracted by the bright colours of the plastics and mistake them for fish.
One horrific picture of an albatross chick, dead on a beach in the north Pacific, reveals the scale of the global problem.
Scientists believe the dozens of discarded bottle tops, fishing nets and splintered plastic in its stomach were fed to the bird by its parents.
An international team of scientists gathered data from 24 expeditions mounted over a period of six years between 2007 and 2013.
Lead researcher Dr Marcus Eriksen, of the 5 Gyres Institute in Los Angeles, said taking part in the expeditions had been like watching the stock of an entire supermarket afloat.