The Entire Ocean Ecosystem Is Threatened – Scientists Uncover Shocking Spread of Plastics Beyond Known Garbage Patches

A groundbreaking study discovered extensive plastic and microplastic pollution in remote ocean areas, proving that the threat extends far beyond known garbage patches. It underscores the need for immediate global action to reduce plastic emissions into the ocean and calls for a comprehensive Plastics Treaty to tackle the issue at its source.When plastic finds its way into the ocean, it slowly breaks down into tiny pieces due to weathering and disintegration.

What is the distribution of plastics in the oceans? Which areas are particularly affected? Are there any plastic-free zones? And what properties do plastics have close to the source or far away in the open ocean? Jahnke and her research team have investigated these questions. “We selected stations with predicted high and low plastic loads for our investigations,” says Jahnke. “Some stations were located in areas that had already been well researched such as the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch. We also wanted to investigate zones in the open ocean that had hardly been explored. For example, we took samples in a marine reserve northwest of Hawaii, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.

“The mesh size was 0.3 millimeters. This allowed us to collect not only larger items, but also small plastic particles to determine the amount of microplastics, which are less than five millimeters in diameter,” says UFZ researcher Robby Rynek, lead author of the study. “The plastic particles from each sample were sorted by size and counted. We then used a special form of infrared spectroscopy to chemically analyze the particles and estimate their weathering state based on their appearance.

Close-up of a sample collected with the neuston net, showing plastic particles with considerable animal ‘by-catch.’ Credit: Annika Jahnke / UFZ“The most surprising and at the same time most worrying result of our study is that we found equally large quantities of particularly small microplastics in the remote marine protected area north-west of Hawaii. We hadn’t expected that.

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