LIVE STREAMING

Plastic covers 88 percent of the ocean

Photo from Flickr Commons

From grocery packaging to utensils, throw-away plastic is nearly everywhere in our daily lives. It is also nearly everywhere in the ocean.

MORE IN THIS SECTION

Mourning in Colombia

Piñatas For Everyone

A Latino in the Stars

Hispanic Role Model

A Latino Storyteller

Pau Gasol enters the HOF

SHARE THIS CONTENT:

Photo from Flickr Commons

From grocery packaging to utensils, throw-away plastic is nearly everywhere in our daily lives. It is also nearly everywhere in the ocean.

Researchers at the University of Cadiz in Spain sampled oceans around the globe, from the Atlantic to the Pacific and every one in between, and detected plastic in 88 percent of surfaces.  Most of the plastic had been broken down into pieces smaller than half an inch in diameter — the size of a small pebble — or microplastics similar to those used in exfoliating creams.

According to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the bits of trash that float atop the surface present a threat to marine organisms at risk of swallowing them, and in turn, the entire food chain.

The small plastic pieces differ from larger areas of trash that float through the ocean, gathered into ‘trash islands’ by currents. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch discovered last year in the northern Pacific Ocean may be more like a ‘trash continent’ because it is estimated to be larger than the state of Texas.

Ocean trash comes from both littering and hurricanes, floods and other storms that carry debris into the ocean. A recent study published by the American Geophysical Union estimated that as sea levels rise due to melting Arctic ice, even more plastic will be added to the ocean.

  • LEAVE A COMMENT:

  • Join the discussion! Leave a comment.

  • or
  • REGISTER
  • to comment.
  • LEAVE A COMMENT:

  • Join the discussion! Leave a comment.

  • or
  • REGISTER
  • to comment.
00:00 / 00:00
Ads destiny link