There are about 269 thousand tons of plastic waste floating currently on the surface of the oceans around the planet, reveals a study by an international research team, published Wednesday in the American journal ‘PLoS ONE’.
The microplastic pollution was observed in all the oceans of the planet, although in different concentrations. However, the scientists explained that the data are insufficient to accurately assess the total weight of debris, micro and macroplásticos, floating to the surface.
In order to obtain a more precise value, the researchers, from five countries, using data gathered over 24 expeditions between 2007 and 2013 in five major subtropical gyres, eddies confluence of major ocean currents in the Australian coast in the Bay of Bengal -Índico- and the Mediterranean.
The collected data refer to micro-plastics recovered in networks and large plastic waste directly observed, and the analysis on the distribution of this waste by the oceans was made by a computer model.
From these data and model, experts raised to at least 5.25 million million the number of plastic particles in the oceans, with a total weight of close to 269 thousand tons.
The large plastic blocks seem to be more abundant off the coasts and turn into micro-plastics in the five large spins, say the authors of the research.
The studies found that the smallest micro-plastics are present in the most remote regions of the inhabited areas, as the subpolar regions, a result that surprised scientists.
This distribution of micro-plastics in remote areas may suggest that large spins act as crushers large pieces of plastic, and later the micro-plastics are thrown by the currents in all oceans.
“The five subtropical gyres in which they accrue plastic waste is not the final destination, but the resulting micro-plastics interact with the entire ocean ecosystem,” explained Marcus Eriksen, director research at the Institute Five Spins, California (west coast of the United States), one of the leaders of the research.
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