Atlantic Garbage Patch Isn't Growing: Researchers Wonder Where The Extra Plastic Is Going

WASHINGTON — The amount of plastic trash in the ocean doesn't seem to be growing, and environmentalists are puzzled.

A 22-year study indicates that the amount of plastic corralled by currents into a floating junkyard in the Atlantic Ocean has not increased.

"We know that global production of plastics has increased substantially over the time period" and disposal also has increased, said Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Mass.

"If there is more plastic trash it's hard to believe more is not making it into the ocean. There is missing plastic out there," she said in a telephone interview.

Over the course of the study more than 64,000 individual plastic pieces were collected at 6,100 locations that were sampled, Law and colleagues report in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science.

Researchers worry about plastic in the oceans because it can endanger seabirds, turtles and other sea life which eat it, or become entangled. A floating trash field also has been reported in the Pacific Ocean.

While the researchers found significant year-to-year changes in the amount of plastic in the Atlantic, averaging over time they found no significant increase.

The annual trips to the Atlantic junkyard use plankton nets to skim the surface, collecting tiny pieces, and students then pick out the plastic pieces with tweezers.

The exact expanse of the Atlantic trash field has not been determined, Law said. It is located in the Atlantic at about the same latitude as Atlanta.

Law suggested that the plastic may be breaking unto smaller pieces and passing through the nets, or that biological growth on the plastic may be causing it to become more dense and sink into the ocean where the nets miss it.

Wind patterns and currents do not seem to have changed, she said, so the trash should still be collecting at the same place.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.

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Online: http://sciencemag.org

Comments

[Peter Aursnes]

04:37 AM on 08/23/2010

It's on its way to Europe with the gulf stream.

[JTCan]

02:36 AM on 08/22/2010

It has made it's way into the Pacific ocean...and joined that island of trash twice the size of Texas and over a mile deep.

[hen81]

06:23 PM on 08/21/2010

Last Rainbow

A man sees the last rainbow on earth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uXADAjKnIM

http://DTPollard.com

[flashblitzen]

03:33 PM on 08/21/2010

Vote with your bux and start supporting companies that package responsibly. If that's all you can do. Either that or get out and kill your own meals and drink at the stream which is THE most responsible thing you can do. Or simply do nothing, which is probably what you will do.

[Left on Red]

08:56 PM on 08/20/2010

I guess the anti littering laws are finally being enforced.

[RudyHaugeneder]

08:40 PM on 08/20/2010

When something that's expected to get worse doesn't get worse, yet the source of the problem is increasing, then it is time to get really worried -- sort of life the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disappearing, but remaining unseen in another form in the water, doing something bad -- a bad we haven't quite figured out yet, but which we just know is probably really bad.
Plastic garbage in the oceans also fits that bill. In this case it is there, but not visibly growing as it should be. Out of sight but nevertheless there -- and doing what that nobody knows.
Freaky.

[mandinka]

08:34 PM on 08/20/2010

The environmentalists will have to start shredding bottles and littering since has been a great fund raising scheme

[jimme]

07:31 PM on 08/20/2010

Maybe it's due to recycling,you know,one of those crazy_lib ideas.

[onalimb]

06:27 PM on 08/22/2010

That was my thought.
Can it be?

[direct democracy]

03:39 PM on 08/20/2010

"Law suggested that the plastic may be breaking unto smaller pieces and passing through the nets, or that biological growth on the plastic may be causing it to become more dense and sink into the ocean where the nets miss it."

That explains that. Maybe it doesn't look like its growing because its reached an equilibrium where a similar amount of new plastic is deposited to that plastic that sinks or breaks up.

[AJH]

06:12 PM on 08/20/2010

There have also been massive emphasis on recycling, enhanced water treatment etc...

Of course hasn't the pacific patch been growing and does that mean we should blame china/asia growth. while the atlantic as USA europe Africa. Expect euorpe dynamics over 20 years similar to ours.

[Heidi Thompson]

02:09 PM on 08/20/2010

trash in the ocean...hmm...does that not alert any green or environmental activists? where are the trash and dump laws? why arnt people being fined or punished for it? just looking at it or discovering it and not doing anything about it should cost you 20 years jail time or community service..im tired of watching our world going to trash

[IMOPINIONH8D]

09:40 AM on 08/21/2010

We pay garbage companies to legally litter for us, it helps us sleep better at night.

[JamesBondQuixote]

01:06 PM on 08/20/2010

Where's all the extra plastic and why isn't the garbage patch growing? Here's the most likely answer: Swallowed up by marine animals, causing horrific suffering to them. With all that non-biodegradable stuff in their digestive system causing intestinal blockage they cannot absorb the nutrients from their real food, or they have bowel blockage and their digestive waste poisoning them slowly.

[Crushedknee]

12:05 PM on 08/20/2010

I Know Know!!..we could Make and Market Ocean grabage patch Kids..Made out of real Ocean Flotsam..I mix of Natural and Unnatural Ocean crap..Seaweed hair..On a plastic Jug..With Seashell ears and Lid cap eyes..

[az10]

10:19 AM on 08/20/2010

The garbage patch was discovered by Charles J. Moore, when returning home through the North Pacific Gyre after competing in the Transpac sailing race in 1997. 22 years that makes not !!! The national science foundation sounds like BS los alamos national labs is our national science foundation!

[cabinetmaniac]

10:38 AM on 08/20/2010

Pay attention!

Second paragraph.

:-]

[az10]

10:43 AM on 08/20/2010

The second paragraph says 22 years. So who discovered it 22 years ago?

[only livin boy in NY]

10:04 AM on 08/20/2010

its called the great recession scientists

[Gunner Asch]

10:18 AM on 08/20/2010

Over 22 years? Long recession.

[only livin boy in NY]

01:18 PM on 08/20/2010

get used 2 it

[Billy Jack]

09:43 AM on 08/20/2010

Don't worry, it's out there. It just hasn't reached critical mass yet, but just be patient, if will find us