Plastic garbage floating in the Atlantic Ocean is “a significant environmental concern,” according to oceanographers from the Sea Education Association (SEA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Hawaii. In reviewing 22 years worth of data collected from water samples, the experts found 60% of them contained tiny pieces of plastic, most of which measured no more than a few millimeters. Despite their small size, the plastic has had important or even detrimental impacts on ocean life, such as sea animals becoming entangled or eating it.
The largest amount of plastic – 83% – is in an area known as the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, reaching from the latitude of Baltimore to that of the Bahamas.
