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New study highlights plastic waste in the Atlantic
photo by kqedquest (Flickr CC)
A recent study attempting to measure the amount of plastic debris in the Atlantic has shed more light on the scale of this type marine pollution and its effects on ocean ecosystems.
The findings, which analyze data collected from 22 years of oceanic surveys, list several impacts of plastic on marine life, including animals becoming entangled in plastic debris, animals eating plastic and debris facilitating the redistribution of certain species outside their normal habitat.
From an article in Wired:
The data were gathered by thousands of undergraduates aboard the Sea Education Association (SEA) sailing semester, who hand-picked, counted and measured more than 64,000 pieces of plastic from 6,000 net tows between 1986 to 2008.
Though regulations have reduced the amount of plastic dumped at sea, the amount of plastic garbage originating on land and then finding its way into the Earth’s oceans has increased. They researchers’ findings are not surprising in light of the increasing throwaway, consumption-based nature of the world economy.
They said the global production of plastic materials had increased five-fold between 1976 and 2008, and the amount thrown away in the US has risen four-fold during the past two decades.
–BBC News
The garbage patch in the Atlantic is comparable to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the area of refuse twice the size of Texas formed by the currents of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.
For more details on the story see the following BBC News report:
Study measures Atlantic plastic accumulation
Additional resources:
Independent – Now Atlantic is found to have huge ‘garbage patch’
Independent – Supermarkets lose heart in green war on plastic carrier bags
Tags: Atlantic, debris, garbage, marine, ocean, Patch, plastic, sea, study
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