Plastic Accumulation in the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre (original) (raw)
ADS
;
- Morét-Ferguson, Skye ;
- Maximenko, Nikolai A. ;
- Proskurowski, Giora ;
- Peacock, Emily E. ;
- Hafner, Jan ;
- Reddy, Christopher M.
Abstract
Plastic marine pollution is a major environmental concern, yet a quantitative description of the scope of this problem in the open ocean is lacking. Here, we present a time series of plastic content at the surface of the western North Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea from 1986 to 2008. More than 60% of 6136 surface plankton net tows collected buoyant plastic pieces, typically millimeters in size. The highest concentration of plastic debris was observed in subtropical latitudes and associated with the observed large-scale convergence in surface currents predicted by Ekman dynamics. Despite a rapid increase in plastic production and disposal during this time period, no trend in plastic concentration was observed in the region of highest accumulation.
Publication:
Science
Pub Date:
September 2010
DOI:
Bibcode: