All of the World's Oceans Have Plastic Debris on Their Surfaces: The Tide of Pollution

Small plastic debris on the tops of waves across our oceans is a growing problem. Until now, though, researchers have been unsure exactly how widespread this was. Now, scientists have found that there are five large accumulations of plastic debris in the open ocean that match with the five major twists of oceanic surface water circulation, showing that all of the world's oceans have plastic debris on their surfaces.

"Ocean currents carry plastic objects which split into smaller and smaller fragments due to solar radiation," said Andres Cozar, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Those little pieces of plastic, known as microplastics, can last hundreds of years and were detected in 88 percent of the ocean surface sampled during the Malaspina Expedition 2010."

The Malaspina Circumnavigation Expedition 2010 was a project that included more than 400 researchers from around the world. Researchers studied the impact of global change on the ocean ecosystem and explored its biodiversity. Sailing onboard a ship, they took nearly 200,000 water, plankton, atmospheric particles and gases samples in 313 points of the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Unfortunately, they found far more plastic than previously expected.

"These microplastics have an influence on the behavior and the food chain of marine organisms," said Cozar. "On one hand, the tiny plastic fragments often accumulated contaminants that, if swallowed, can be passed to organisms during digestion; without forgetting the gastrointenstinal obstructions, which are another of the most common problems with this type of waste. On the other hand, the abundance of floating plastic fragments allows many small organisms to sail on them and colonize places they could not access to previously. But probably, most of the impacts taking place due to plastic pollution in the oceans are not yet known."

The findings reveal that plastic pollution is far more widespread than first thought. Rather than being in isolated pockets of the ocean, it's a global problem. It's clear that steps need to be taken in order to reduce the amount of plastic waste currently winding up in our world's oceans.

The findings are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.