Plastic pollution in the South Pacific subtropical gyre
Marcus Eriksena b✉, Nikolai Maximenkoc, Martín Thield, Anna Cumminsb, Gwen Lattine, Stiv Wilsonb, Jan Hafnerc, Ann Zellerse, Samuel Rifmane
- a5 Gyres Institute, 2122 S. Spaulding Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA. marcus@5gyres.org
- b5 Gyres Institute, 2122 S. Spaulding Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90016, USA
- cInternational Pacific Research Center, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, 1680 East–West Road, Post #401, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
- dFacultad Ciencias del Mar, Universidad Católica del Norte, Larrondo 1281, Coquimbo, Chile
- eAlgalita Marine Research Foundation, 345 Bay Shore Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90803-1956, USA
- ✉Corresponding author
Papers open inside SciRah from the original publisher or repository; SciRah never hosts them.
Abstract
Plastic marine pollution in the open ocean of the southern hemisphere is largely undocumented. Here, we report the result of a (4489 km) 2424 nautical mile transect through the South Pacific subtropical gyre, carried out in March-April 2011. Neuston samples were collected at 48 sites, averaging 50 nautical miles apart, using a manta trawl lined with a 333 μm mesh. The transect bisected a predicted accumulation zone associated with the convergence of surface currents, driven by local winds. The results show an increase in surface abundance of plastic pollution as we neared the center and decrease as we moved away, verifying the presence of a garbage patch. The average abundance and mass was 26,898 particles km(-2) and 70.96 g km(-2), respectively. 88.8% of the plastic pollution was found in the middle third of the samples with the highest value of 396,342 particles km(-2) occurring near the center of the predicted accumulation zone.
TL;DRA transect through the South Pacific subtropical gyre carried out in March-April 2011 bisected a predicted accumulation zone associated with the convergence of surface currents, driven by local winds, showing an increase in surface abundance of plastic pollution as the authors neared the center and decrease as they moved away, verifying the presence of a garbage patch. (Semantic Scholar)