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Scientists set sail for first global study of 'plastic soup'

The 5 Gyres Project, a marine study of the plastic debris found in the world’s five oceanic gyres, launches in the North Atlantic Ocean.

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Two marine scientists have set sail for the transatlantic, launching the first global study of the plastic marine pollution that’s widely known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” found in the North Pacific Ocean. The study’s maiden voyage, from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, through the Sargasso Sea, is part of the 5 Gyres Project, which will launch a second sail across the South Atlantic in August.

Participating in and directing the project are researchers Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Anna Cummins, who have worked with Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF),  documenting the growing accumulation of plastic pollution in the North Pacific Gyre.

“This is a global problem. We’re seeing evidence of plastic pollution everywhere in the world, and it’s getting worse,” says Moore.

Eriksen and Cummins will work with AMRF to deepen their previous research focus, which has been to quantify floating plastics, including micro-plastic fragments consumed by fish. Now they’ll look at how this flotsam affects those fish to better understand the human effects of what the Los Angeles Times calls “one of the fastest growing segments of civilization’s toxic waste stream,” according to the 5 Gyres Project.

“Plastic particles at sea act as magnets for chemicals like DDT, PCBs, flame retardants, and other pollutants,” Cummins says. “The 5 Gyres Project is now working to advance our previous research with targeted testing to determine if these chemicals accumulate in fish, travel up the food chain, and end up on our dinner plates.

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