Tide of microplastics could be released by melting Arctic ice

HUGE amounts of microplastics trapped within Arctic sea ice will be released into the world’s oceans with global warming, researchers have warned.

The Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany found 12,000 microplastic parti- cles per litre of ice when it surveyed five regions in the Arctic Ocean.

Analysis of ocean currents showed much of the debris had flowed from the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, the largest accumulation of ocean plastic in the world, which lies between California and Hawaii.

British experts said it showed that the garbage patch was “literally the tip of the iceberg”.

Dr Ilka Peeken, biologist and first author of a study published in the journal Nature Communications, said: “More than half of the microplastic particles trapped in the ice were less than a twentieth of a millimetre wide, which means they could easily be ingested by Arctic microorganisms. No one can say for certain how harmful these tiny plastic particles are for marine life, or ultimately for human beings.”

The movement of sea ice in the Arctic means much of the waste is eventually transported to waters off the north east coast of Greenland. British experts said the amount of microplastics in the oceans will only increase as sea ice melts because of climate change.

Prof Ton van den Bremer, Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, said: “The study ties together two global environmental problems: plastic pollution of the ocean and climate change, as the melting of the arctic ice cap will lead to the release of large additional quantities of micro-plastic.”

The researchers found particularly high concentrations of polyethylene particles, used mainly in packaging, which most likely came from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, brought through the Bering Strait and into the Arctic Ocean by the Pacific inflow.

They also discovered paint particles from ships and nylon waste from discarded fishing nets in the seas off Siberia. Cellulose acetate, primarily used for cigarette filters, was also found in high quantities.

Dr Jeremy Wilkinson, sea ice physicist at the British Antarctic Survey, added: “Sea ice grows vertically downwards, thus it was incorporating microplastic particles as it grew. It suggests microplastics are now ubiquitous within the surface waters of the world’s ocean. Nowhere is immune.”