The ocean contains a huge amount of microscopic plastic

The number of microscopic plastics in the world's oceans is a million times larger than previously thought, according to a new study just published.

New research published in scientific journals Limnology and Oceanography Letters shows that the densities of microscopic pieces of plastic - smaller than 5mm - are actually five to seven times larger than scientists' estimates. before.

The difference between these new findings and previous studies is related to the microscopic resins and how scientists have measured them in water.

Oceanographer, Jennifer Brandon estimates that, on average, the ocean is contaminated by 8.3 million "tiny" pieces per cubic meter of water.

Plastic waste at the beach.

However, previous studies looking at larger pieces of plastic found only 10 pieces per cubic meter.

For years, we have done micro studies in the same way, using nets to collect samples. But anything smaller than that mesh has escaped, Mr. Brand Brandon said in a press release.

Microplastics have been described as "ubiquitous" , possibly even reaching the most remote places on our planet. A September study showed that Florida's Tampa Bay alone contained 4 billion microscopic plastic particles.

Plastics are usually measured by dragging submerged nets with fine mesh through water. However, a 2015 review of more than 11,000 trawls between 1971 and 2013 found that 90 percent of those experiments used nets that only collected resins as small as 333 micrometres, or one-third of a millimeter in diameter.

New research shows that plastic is as small as 10 micrometers, smaller than the width of a human hair.

Brandon found microplastics in salps (a species of plankton) , which are relatively few in the ocean's food chain because they eat some of the smallest creatures in the sea. But, as she pointed out, broken plastic fragments can still go further in the food chain.

No one eats plankton but tiny plastic can be present in the human food chain, she added.

1. For the first time detected microplastic microscopic particles in human feces
2. Microplastics threaten the offspring and their food source