Students at SEA collected tens of thousands of plastic pieces at 6,100 offshore locations. This image shows sargassum, plastic, and a flying fish that was collected from a net.
Click on image for full size
Image Courtesy of Sea Education Association

Marine Scientists, Students Find Widespread Floating Plastic Debris in North Atlantic Ocean

Despite growing awareness of the problem of plastic pollution in the world's oceans, little solid scientific information has existed about the nature and scope of the issue.

This week, a team of researchers from the Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), and the University of Hawaii (UH) has published results in the journal Science of a study of plastic marine debris based on data collected over 22 years by undergraduate students.

The western North Atlantic contains high concentrations of plastic debris, comparable to those observed in the region of the Pacific commonly referred to as the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

More than 64,000 individual plastic pieces were collected at 6,100 locations sampled yearly over the course of the study. A plankton net was used to collect plastic debris as well as biological organisms at each station.

"We now have the first long-term, regional-scale scientific study of this phenomenon," says Don Rice, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s chemical oceanography program, which funded the research.

"This unique study leaves us with a big mystery and a haunting question, however:  What happens to all that plastic once it gets to the central gyre [current]? And how does it interact with deep-sea biology?"

The highest concentrations of plastic were observed in a region centered at 32°N (roughly the latitude of Atlanta, Ga.) and extending from 22-38°N latitude.

"Not only does this important data set provide the first rigorous scientific estimate of the extent and amount of floating plastic at an ocean-basin scale," says SEA scientist Kara Lavender Law, the Science paper's lead author, "but the data also confirm that basic ocean physics explains why the plastic accumulates so far from shore."

Numerical model simulations by Nikolai Maximenko (UH) explain why surface currents cause the plastic to accumulate in this region.

A surprising finding is that the concentration of floating plastic debris has not increased during the 22-year period of the study, despite the fact that the plastic disposal overall has increased substantially.

The whereabouts of the "missing plastic" is unknown.

"The analysis provides a robust scientific description of the extent of plastic pollution to date, which can be used to make better management and policy decisions, and to inform popular perceptions of this issue," says SEA Dean Paul Joyce.

A companion study published this week in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin details the characteristics of the plastic debris collected in these tows.

Most of the plastic is millimeters in size and consists of polyethylene or polypropylene, materials that float in seawater.

There is evidence that biological growth may alter the physical characteristics of the plastic over time, perhaps causing it to sink.

"I think some of the big questions are colonization: what actually lives on these pieces of plastic?" says scientist Chris Reddy of WHOI, a co-author of both papers.

"To what extent are ocean currents moving the small life on these plastic particles around the ocean?"

Data continue to be collected aboard SEA's sailing research vessels in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by undergraduate students in the SEA Semester program.

A dedicated research cruise, Plastics at SEA: North Atlantic Expedition, recently investigated the eastern boundary of the Atlantic plastics accumulation zone.

"The several thousand SEA Semester undergraduate students who helped collect and count plastic debris over the decades have been essential contributors to this work," says SEA President John Bullard.

"They have gained a much fuller understanding of the oceans and the role humans play both in their present and future."

To learn more about Sea Education Association's mission and programs, please visit their website.

Text above is courtesy of the National Science Foundation

Last modified September 13, 2010 by Becca Hatheway.

You might also be interested in:

Traveling Nitrogen Classroom Activity Kit

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Surface Ocean Currents

The water at the ocean surface is moved primarily by winds. Large scale winds move in specific directions because they are affected by Earth’s spin and the Coriolis Effect. Because Earth spins constantly,...more

Triggers of Volcanic Eruptions in Oregon's Mount Hood Investigated

A new study has found that a mixing of two different types of magma is the key to the historic eruptions of Mount Hood, Oregon's tallest mountain, and that eruptions often happen in a relatively short...more

Oldest Earth Mantle Reservoir Discovered

Researchers have found a primitive Earth mantle reservoir on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. Geologist Matthew Jackson and his colleagues from a multi-institution collaboration report the finding--the...more

It’s Not Your Fault – A Typical Fault, Geologically Speaking, That Is

Some geologic faults that appear strong and stable, slip and slide like weak faults. Now an international team of researchers has laboratory evidence showing why some faults that 'should not' slip are...more

Extended Period of Lower Solar Activity Linked to Changes in Sun's Conveyor Belt

A new analysis of the unusually long solar cycle that ended in 2008 suggests that one reason for the long cycle could be a stretching of the sun's conveyor belt, a current of plasma that circulates between...more

Growth Spurt in Tree Rings Prompts Questions About Climate Change

Anyone who has ever cut down a tree is familiar with the rings radiating out from the center of a tree trunk marking the tree's age. Careful study of tree rings can offer much more: a rich record of history...more

Did Life First Develop in a Mica Sandwich at the Bottom of a Primordial Sea?

Earth's first life form may have developed between the layers of a chunk of mica sitting like a multilayered sandwich in primordial waters, according to a new hypothesis. The mica hypothesis, which was...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA