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News Release 10-149
Marine Scientists, Students Find Widespread Floating Plastic Debris in North Atlantic Ocean
Undergraduates working through the Sea Education Association (SEA) play major role in discovery
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Students at SEA collected tens of thousands of plastic pieces at 6,100 offshore locations.
Credit: Sea Education Association
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The SEA ship Corwith Cramer with all her sails set; the research was done aboard the Cramer.
Credit: SEA/Roman Shor
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Close-up of the surface plankton net used to sample marine organisms and plastic debris.
Credit: SEA/Leslie Peate
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A hiking boot floating in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, as this whirling current is known.
Credit: SEA/David M. Lawrence
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A net-tow brings in unwelcome objects from the sea: discarded bits of floating plastic.
Credit: SEA/Giora Proskurowski
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Plastic pieces millimeters in size are hand-picked from a sample collected with a plankton net.
Credit: SEA/Marilou Maglione
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This plastic bucket, carrying biological growth and fish, was found drifting in the North Atlantic.
Credit: SEA/Skye Moret
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Two triggerfish with the plastic bucket were caught hundreds of miles from their natural range.
Credit: SEA/David M. Lawrence
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Algae and other invertebrates overgrow floating plastic debris.
Credit: SEA/Skye Moret
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Birds'-eye-view of a plankton net towed through the North Atlantic to collect plastic debris.
Credit: SEA/Giora Proskurowski
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The researchers' findings are described in the August 20 issue of the journal Science.
Credit: Copyright AAAS 2010
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