Plastic Debris in Pacific More Extensive Than Original Estimates

The most extensive study of the so-called ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ has discovered a far higher density of debris, spread out over a larger area, than was originally believed. A three-week expedition, conducted by scientists on two vessels, found that every one of several hundred water samples taken between the waters near San Francisco and the so-called garbage patch — 1,000 miles to the west — contained tiny bits of broken-down plastic refuse. As the boats neared the garbage patch — an area twice the size of Texas where the confetti-like pieces of plastic have accumulated because of ocean currents — researchers discovered extremely dense concentrations of the debris. The sieves “would be completely clogged with tiny pieces of plastic,” said a researcher with the California Environmental Protection Agency. The small plastic bits are eaten by jellyfish and fish, and toxic substances in the plastics are believed to work their way up the food chain to fish, such as salmon, that are eaten by humans. The expedition collected thousands of pieces of plastic of all sizes, as well as 300 fish, to test how chemicals such as PCBs migrate up the marine food chain.