Oceans Awash With Microscopic Plastic, Scientists Say

[theoceansnerves]

James Owen
for National Geographic News
May 6, 2004

Beaches worldwide bear witness to the ugly impact of plastic debris on our oceans. Milk jugs, water bottles, cigarette lighters, diaper liners, jar lids, cheap toys, and goodness knows what else festoon tide lines today. But this may just scratch the surface.

A new study suggests that microscopic bits of plastic have sifted, unseen, throughout the marine environment. The plastic not only litters the beach, it is—like fine bits of sand—becoming the beach.

U.K. researchers in Plymouth and Southampton, England, found that microscopic fragments of nylon, polyester, and seven other types of plastic are widespread in sediments around British shores.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0506_040506_oceanplastic.html#main

[jpak]

1. The North Pacific is chock full of macroscopic plastic

Last summer, I sailed from Barrow Alaska to the Ross Sea Antarctica. Every day at lunchtime I went up to the bow to bird/whale watch. The amount of visible plastic in the water between Dutch Harbor and Hawaii was astounding.

Fishing gear, bottles, bags, and a lot of stuff that was unidentifiable.

One day I counted 27 pieces of plastic pass within 10 meters of the ship over a 22 minute interval. The ship was doing ~10 knots. I haven't done the math but that's a shocking amount of trash per square kilometer.