Great Pacific Garbage Patch is 16 times bigger than previously estimated - TomoNews
- 6 years ago
PACIFIC OCEAN — A new study suggests the Great Pacific Garbage Patch could be 16 times larger than previous estimates.
The results of a three-year study beginning in 2015, commissioned by the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, were published in the journal Scientific Reports on Thursday.
With 30 vessels and a C-130 Hercules aircraft, researchers catalogued a sample of over a million pieces of plastic, mostly comprised of microplastics less than 0.5 centimeters in diameter, according to CBC News.
The study estimates the patch could contain more than 1.8 trillion pieces of microplastics.
Scientists say there are more than 79,000 tonnes of plastic in a 1.6 million square kilometer area of the North Pacific Ocean.
Researchers found plastic bottles, containers, packaging straps, lids, ropes and fishing nets among the other refuse that had been collecting for decades.
As the plastics breakdown into smaller pieces, they threaten marine life that can eat them and die from them.
The results of a three-year study beginning in 2015, commissioned by the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, were published in the journal Scientific Reports on Thursday.
With 30 vessels and a C-130 Hercules aircraft, researchers catalogued a sample of over a million pieces of plastic, mostly comprised of microplastics less than 0.5 centimeters in diameter, according to CBC News.
The study estimates the patch could contain more than 1.8 trillion pieces of microplastics.
Scientists say there are more than 79,000 tonnes of plastic in a 1.6 million square kilometer area of the North Pacific Ocean.
Researchers found plastic bottles, containers, packaging straps, lids, ropes and fishing nets among the other refuse that had been collecting for decades.
As the plastics breakdown into smaller pieces, they threaten marine life that can eat them and die from them.