Altantic home to widespread floating plastic debris
By IANSSunday, August 22, 2010
WASHINGTON - An expanse of the western North Atlantic Ocean has become home to high concentrations of floating plastic debris.
More than 64,000 plastic pieces were collected at 6,100 locations that were sampled yearly over the course of the study.
The study, based on data collected for over 22 years, was conducted by a team from Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of Hawaii (UH), reports the journal Science.
SEA scientist Kara Lavender Law, who led the study, said: “This important data set provides the first rigorous scientific estimate of the extent and amount of floating plastic at an ocean-basin scale.”
“The data also confirms that basic ocean physics explains why the plastic accumulates in this region so far from shore,” said Law, according to a SEA statement.
