Below the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: More Garbage

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https://eos.org/articles/below-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-more-garbage

Source:  By Mara Johnson-Groh, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: ...“We have a very limited understanding of where all the plastic and stuff that’s being put into the ocean ends up,” said Matthias Egger, the lead scientist behind the new study and a researcher with The Ocean Cleanup. “We know roughly there’s tens of millions of tons of plastics going into the ocean. A large part of that should be afloat, but it’s not.” This mystery is known as the missing plastic problem. Plastic found adrift in the ocean makes up only 1% of what should be out there, though a large portion is thought to circulate in coastal environments. The largest known reservoirs of plastic at sea are giant, swirling “garbage patches” that can stretch over areas twice the size of Texas. Could some of the missing plastic have sunk beneath these massive gyres? ...The scientists estimated that between 5 and 2,000 meters below the surface, the total mass of plastic pieces smaller than 5 centimeters is 56%–80% of what is seen at the surface. In total, these plastics could compose 10% of the weight of plastics on the surface.... 

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