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Ninety-Nine Percent of the Ocean's Plastic Is Missing

Posted by samzenpus on from the In-his-plastic-house-at-R'lyeh-dead-Cthulhu-waits-dreaming dept.

sciencehabit writes Millions of tons. That's how much plastic should be floating in the world's oceans, given our ubiquitous use of the stuff. But a new study (abstract) finds that 99% of this plastic is missing. One disturbing possibility: Fish are eating it. If that's the case, "there is potential for this plastic to enter the global ocean food web," says Carlos Duarte, an oceanographer at the University of Western Australia, Crawley. "And we are part of this food web."

1 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Re: One non-disturbing theory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    The alternative is that those who did the study of how much plastic there should be, lied.

    Which is more plausible?