This Aug. 11, 200,9 file image provided by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography shows a patch of sea garbage at sea in the Pacific Ocean.NEW YORK – Plastic junk is floating widely on the world’s oceans, but there’s less of it than expected, a study says.
Such ocean pollution has drawn attention in recent years because of its potential harm to fish and other wildlife.
The new work drew on results from an around-the-world cruise by a research ship that towed a mesh net at 141 sites, as well as other studies. Researchers estimated the total amount of floating plastic debris in open ocean at 7,000 to 35,000 tons.
Andres Cozar of the University of Cadiz in Spain, an author of the study, said that’s a lot less than the 1 million tons he had extrapolated from data reaching back to the 1970s.
The new estimate includes only floating debris, not plastic that may reside beneath the surface or on the ocean floor.