Industrialized fishing is the culprit of hard plastic accumulation in the Pacific Ocean

An oceanographic mission conducted by The Ocean Cleanup in 2019 retrieved over 6000 hard plastic debris items weighing 547 kg and of dimensions greater than 5 cm. A large fraction is composed of fishing nets and ropes while the rest is mostly composed of hard plastic objects and fragments, sometimes carrying evidence of their origin.

A gyre is any large system of circulating ocean currents, especially those involved with large wind movements. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch spans waters from the West Coast of North America to Japan. The patch is comprised of the Western and Eastern Garbage Patch. These areas of spinning debris are linked together by the North Pacific Subtropical Convergence Zone. The zone acts like a highway that moves debris from one patch to another.

The subtropical oceanic gyre in the North Pacific Ocean is currently covered with tens of thousands of tonnes of floating plastic debris, dispersed over millions of square kilometers. Most floating plastics in the North Pacific subtropical gyre can be traced back to five industrialized fishing nations, Japan, China, Korea, USA, Taiwan, and Russia.

A study conducted by researchers provides new insights into the composition, sources, and origins of floating plastic debris accumulating in the North Pacific Garbage Patch (NPGP). A large fraction of the plastic mass accumulating in these offshore waters is made of floating nets and ropes, several meters in size. Smaller hard plastic objects also represent a substantial amount of accumulated floating plastic mass.

The results of the study indicate that a significant fraction of these hard plastics may also be coming from fishing vessels. Between 75 and 86% of the floating plastic mass in the NPGP could be considered abandoned, lost, or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG).

Floating plastic items escaping rivers into the ocean are mostly different from the type of hard plastic debris found in subtropical gyres, i.e. thick positively buoyant plastics made of polyethylene and polypropylene. Less than 15% of these plastics are observed flowing at the surface of European and Asian rivers. The rest rapidly fragments, beaches onto coastlines, or sinks to the bottom of the coastal ocean.

The findings highlight that fisheries play an important role in the solutions to the ocean plastic pollution problem. It is unclear how large the contribution of extreme events such as flooding or tsunamis is to oceanic plastic pollution. Other marine sources such as aquaculture and shipping activity that were not considered in the study can also contribute to ocean plastic pollution.

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[embed]The Ocean Cleanup The Ocean Cleanup is a non-profit organization developing advanced technologies to rid the oceans of plastic. We aim to…theoceancleanup.com

[embed]Great Pacific Garbage Patch The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a collection of marine debris in the North Pacific Ocean. Marine debris is litter…education.nationalgeographic.org