Floating ‘dump’ with 79,000 tons of waste
A GIANT rubbish dump of plastic floating in the ocean has been found to have 16 times more debris than previously estimated.
The so-called ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ in waters between California and Hawaii consists of fishing nets, plastic containers, packaging and ropes, said the Ocean Cleanup Foundation.
Research revealed the mass of plastic is as much as 16 times more dense than prior studies believed, Scientific Reports said.
The study estimates the accumulation is 79,000 metric tons –
‘Shocking amount of plastic’
1.8trillion pieces – of plastic. Most are tiny microplastics.
‘It’s shocking,’ said Joost Dubois, a spokesman for the Netherlandsbased Ocean Cleanup Foundation, which led the team of researchers from seven countries.
Nearly 200 nations late last year signed a United Nations resolution to eliminate plastic pollution in the sea – a move some hope will lead to a legally binding treaty.
Mr Dubois said the patch is made up of enough rubbish to fill 500 jumbo jets. The plastic has accu- mulated into a mass due to currents, scientists say.
The research studied a patch of more than 600,000 square miles of the ocean.
Plastic disintegrates slowly, and one item pulled from the patch was about 40 years old, they said.
The authors found that plastics made up 99.9 per cent of all debris in this part of the ocean.
Although most large items had broken down into fragments, the researchers identified containers, bottles, lids, packaging straps, ropes, and fishing nets.
The authors assessed aerial images and data from 652 net tows carried out by 18 vessels.
The aerial imaging allowed for a more accurate count and measurement of larger debris than previous studies that used only vessel-based visual surveys.
The differences between estimates could also be attributed to increasing levels of ocean plastic pollution in the area.
The authors caution that more research is needed to quantify sources of ocean plastics in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and to better assess how long plastics stay in this area.