Map reveals extent of Ocean Trash but something is wrong

A team of researchers completed the first ever map of ocean trash. They find millions of pieces of plastic debris floating in five large subtropical gyres in the oceans globally.

When the team by marine ecologist Andres Cozar Cabañas finished, and their work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they find out that something was wrong.

There should have been a lot trash floating on the surface than they found, becauseplastic production has quadrupled since the 1980s.

Cozar, who teaches at the University of Cadiz in Spain, said:

“Our observations show that large loads of plastic fragments, with sizes from microns to some millimeters, are unaccounted for in the surface loads. But we don’t know what this plastic is doing. The plastic is somewhere—in the ocean life, in the depths, or broken down into fine particles undetectable by nets.”

Sadly, the accumulation of plastic in the deep ocean would be modifying this enigmatic ecosystem before we can really know it.”

But where exactly are the missing plastic debris? In what amounts? And how did it get there?

“We must learn more about the pathway and ultimate fate of the ‘missing’ plastic.”