'Worrying' Find Made in Pacific Plastic Research

The plastic problem in the world's oceans is a lot bigger than the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, researchers say. In a study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, researchers say they used a catamaran to measure plastic waste and microplastics in nine spots in the open ocean between Vancouver and Singapore. They say that while the largest concentration of plastics was found in the GPGP, as expected, "the most surprising, and at the same time, most worrying result" was that equally large quantities of very small microplastics were found in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, a remote marine reserve northwest of Hawaii.

"We hadn't expected that. According to the calculations of the forecast model, there should be considerably less plastics in this area," study co-author Annika Jahnke, an environmental chemist, said in a news release. Co-author Melanie Bergmann said that even in the garbage patch, "the items do not in any way form a carpet of plastic that covers an entire surface in a dense manner," which makes plastic removal very difficult. "Most plastics are small fragments that escape nets or [that] can only be collected with considerable animal 'by-catch,'" she said. Plastic pollution harms ocean wildlife in multiple ways—and the longer it's in the ocean, the more it breaks down into microplastics that enter the food chain, reports Newsweek.

"Microplastics are most likely distributed much further across the oceans than previously assumed," Jahnke said, noting that plastics were found at all sampling stations. "So, we can't assume that plastics are causing problems mainly in the known accumulation areas—the problem is much bigger and actually affects the entire ocean ecosystem." The researchers say the scale of the problem shows "the need to address plastic pollution efficiently at a global level." (More microplastics stories.)