A global dataset of ocean plastic pollution between 1979 and 2019 has been collated by Marcus Eriksen and colleagues from non-profit group The 5 Gyres Institute.
Improved understanding of plastic accumulation in the oceans to date could provide a “critical baseline” to help address this form of pollution, the researchers said.
Previous studies have focused primarily on northern-hemisphere oceans near the world’s most industrialised nations, while other studies have found increases in ocean plastic over shorter time periods.
In this study, the researchers looked at data on ocean-surface-level plastic pollution collected between 1979 and 2019 from 11,777 stations across six marine regions (North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian and Mediterranean).
After accounting for wind, site selection and biases due to under-sampling, the model showed a significant and rapid increase since 2005 of the global ocean abundance and distribution...