Plastic "Rubbish Patch" Found in Atlantic Ocean
Scientists have discovered an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where plastic debris accumulates. The region is said to compare with the well-documented "great Pacific garbage patch".
Dr Karen Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association said that the pieces of plastic she and her team picked up in the nets were generally very small - up to 1cm across. These are pieces of low-density plastic that are used to make many consumer products, including plastic bags.
"We found a region fairly far north in the Atlantic Ocean where this debris appears to be concentrated and remains over long periods of time," she explained.
"More than 80% of the plastic pieces we collected in the tows were found between 22 and 38 degrees north. So we have a latitude for [where this] rubbish seems to accumulate," she said.
The maximum "plastic density" was 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometre. "That's a maximum that is comparable with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch," said Dr Lavender Law. But she pointed out that there was not yet a clear estimate of the size of the patches in either the Pacific or the Atlantic. "You can think of it in a similar way [to the Pacific Garbage Patch], but I think the word 'patch' can be misleading. This is widely dispersed and it's small pieces of plastic," she said.
The impacts on the marine environment of the plastics were still unknown, added the researcher. "But we know that many marine organisms are consuming these plastics and we know this has a bad effect on seabirds in particular."
