Scientists say there could be anywhere from 12 to 21 million tons of fragments of microplastics that are polluting the Atlantic Ocean right now.

A Study on Plastic Pollution

The National Oceanography Center in the UK led a study set out on a scientific expedition to determine the level of microplastic pollution in the ocean. Their findings are published in the Nature Communications journal.

Study Methodology

The research team scooped up and measured the layers of the ocean to measure the particles. The top 200 meters (or 650 feet) of the water was used.

National Oceanography Center's Katsia Pabortsava led the study. She said that they measured the mass of microplastics, which are particles of plastics with a tiny size. The team measured the ocean's top 5% to estimate the plastic load of the entire sea. They got a figure that is a lot larger than previous estimates.

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According to Pabortsava, they needed a better estimate because, previously, the plastic they prior measured did not match the volume of plastic they inputted. The discrepancy, she believes, is because microplastics were not measured. 

They focused on analyzing their samples on the three most common kinds of plastic polymers used and discarded, namely polystyrene, polypropylene, and polyethylene.

They hope that their study will help future researchers measure the damage to the environment and the ecosystem brought about by these fragmentary plastic particles. The study does this by giving a more robust and better measure of plastic accumulation in the more remote parts of the ocean.

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Findings of the Study

The plastic the team measured reached 21 million tons. This volume is enough to fill nearly a thousand container ships.

The team conducted the expedition from the United Kingdom up to the Falkland archipelago. In their study, they found 7,000 microplastic particles for every cubic meter of ocean water.

University of Manchester professor and plastic pollution expert Jamie Woodward said that the study's results confirmed past research that said that the ocean's microplastic load is a lot more than had been estimated. He noted that the study's vast geographical scale is impressive.

Woodward also adds that the study authors estimated inputs spanning more than 65 years, which is significant because humans have been filling the Atlantic Ocean with microplastics for several decades. He says that there is a need to know the impacts of this contamination on the ocean's ecology because they have been present in all its layers for an extensive period.

Masks from the Pandemic

With the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been reports from some environmental organizations that disposable facemasks are among the most common plastic items in the ocean.

Cumbria-based Morecambe Bay Partnership coordinates coastal clean-ups. According to the organization's Susannah Bleakley, they currently get more of these masks than plastic bags. She is asking that people minimize using single-use plastics as much as they can and dispose of them properly. This plastic litter contributes to the volume of microplastics in the Atlantic Ocean.

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Check out more news and information on Microplastics on Nature World News.