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The largest ocean-based source of plastic pollution is discarded fishing gear (including traps and nets), estimated to be up to 90% of plastic debris in some areas. [56] [57] Continental plastic litter enters the ocean largely through storm-water runoff, flowing into watercourses or directly discharged into coastal waters. [58]
By the end of 2024, the Ocean Cleanup had removed more than one million pounds of trash from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or 0.5% of the total accumulated trash. [7] While microplastics dominate the area by count, 92% of the mass of the patch consists of larger objects which have not yet fragmented into microplastics.
The types of marine pollution can be grouped as pollution from marine debris, plastic pollution, including microplastics, ocean acidification, nutrient pollution, toxins and underwater noise. Plastic pollution in the ocean is a type of marine pollution by plastics , ranging in size from large original material such as bottles and bags, down to ...
Debris on beach near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Debris collected from beaches on Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals over one month. Researchers classify debris as either land- or ocean-based; in 1991, the United Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution estimated that up to 80% of the pollution was land-based, [5] with the remaining 20% originating from ...
The South Pacific garbage patch is an area of ocean with increased levels of marine debris and plastic particle pollution, within the ocean's pelagic zone. This area is in the South Pacific Gyre , which itself spans from waters east of Australia to the South American continent, as far north as the Equator , and south until reaching the ...
Human activities affect marine life and marine habitats through overfishing, habitat loss, the introduction of invasive species, ocean pollution, ocean acidification and ocean warming. These impact marine ecosystems and food webs and may result in consequences as yet unrecognised for the biodiversity and continuation of marine life forms. [3]
Denser material that is thought to exist under the surface of the ocean includes plastic called polyethylene terephthalate that is used to make soft drink and water bottles. [6] However, these denser plastics are not observed in the North Atlantic garbage patch because the methods to collect samples only capture the surface microplastics.
A World Wide Fund for Nature report of 2019 [6] estimates that, considering the Mediterranean countries, around 70% of plastic pollution coming from water-based sources comes from three areas: Egypt (41.3%), Turkey (19.1%) and Italy (7.6%). Plastic litter originating from land-based sources is instead estimated to be coming from, in decreasing ...