A recent study published by the journal Nature Communication estimates there is at least 10 times more plastic in the Atlantic than previously thought.
The lead author of the paper, Dr Katsiaryna Pabortsava and Co-author, Professor Richard Lampitt who are both from the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) collected their seawater samples during the 26th Atlantic Meridional Transect expedition in September to November 2016. Their study focussed on the levels of polyethylene, polypropylene and polystyrene. The tests were completed at three selected depths in the top 200 metres across 12 locations in a 10,000km stretch of the Atlantic Ocean.These plastic types are commercially most prominent and also most littered.Through the use of state-of-the-art spectroscopic imaging techniques, the study found that in the top 200 metres of the Atlantic Ocean alone there are between 12 and 21 million tonnes of microplastic suspended.
Read the full report here https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17932-9
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