Researcher: Pacific garbage patch´s scope overblown

Jan. 6 – A researcher funded by the National Science Foundation say claims about the scope of the Pacific Garbage Patch are greatly exaggerated.

Those claims include that the patch spreads plastic contamination over an area twice the size of Texas, that plastic outweighs plankton in the areas and that the amount of contamination has been growing tenfold each decade since the 1950s.

"There is no doubt that the amount of plastic in the world’s oceans is troubling, but this kind of exaggeration undermines the credibility of scientists," said Oregon State University professor of Oceanography Angelicque White. "We have data that allow us to make reasonable estimates; we don’t need the hyperbole. Given the observed concentration of plastic in the North Pacific, it is simply inaccurate to state that plastic outweighs plankton, or that we have observed an exponential increase in plastic."

White, using other scientific research and taking part in an NSF funded expedition looking at the impact of plastic debris on microbial communities in the world’s ocean, said the actual area of plastic is less than 1% of the geographic size of Texas.

"The amount of plastic out there isn’t trivial," White said. "But using the highest concentrations ever reported by scientists produces a patch that is a small fraction of the state of Texas, not twice the size."

White studied the relationship between microbes and plastic in the ocean; their exepedition found photosynthetic microbes were thriving on many plastic particles.

"On one hand, these plastics may help remove toxins from the water," she said. "On the other hand, these same toxin-laden particles may be ingested by fish and seabirds. Plastic clearly does not belong in the ocean."

For more information on the study visit http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2011/jan/oceanic-%E2%80%9Cgarbage-patch%E2%80%9D-not-nearly-big-portrayed-media.

Contact Waste & Recycling News reporter Amanda Smith-Teutsch at 330-865-6166 or asmith-teutsch@crain.com

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