Study Finds Big Rise in Plastic Trash in Atlantic Ocean

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April 18, 2019

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is probably the most well-known ocean area littered with tons and tons of plastic. However, scientists in the U.K. have been collecting data on marine plastic for more than 60 years and have now released the results of a decadeslong study that found that the amount of plastic in the North Atlantic Ocean is large as well.

Continuous plankton recorder

The mechanism for conducting the research was the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR), which has been attached to boats since 1957. The torpedo-shaped gadget dangles in the water from a metal wire attached to the boats. As its name suggests, the device was designed to track tiny marine life, not manmade contaminants.

The study tracked more than 16,700 trips, off the back of all manner of boats including ferries and fast ships, totaling more than 6.5 million nautical miles. Scientists found that the CPR caught plastic on 669 of those trips. Further, data showed that the amount of plastic in the Atlantic Ocean has increased by a factor of three in the past 50 years and enfold in the past two decades. In addition, fishing gear was the most common type of plastic gear that turned up in the data set.

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