Microplastic Concentrations in the Ocean Estimated

According to a report posted May 3, 2020 in the journal Environmental Pollution by researchers with the UK Plymouth Marine Laboratory and others https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749120310253#! “… Microplastic debris is ubiquitous and yet sampling, classifying and enumerating this prolific pollutant in marine waters has proven challenging. Typically, waterborne microplastic sampling is undertaken using nets with a 333 μm mesh, which cannot account for smaller debris. In this study, we provide an estimate of the extent to which microplastic concentrations are underestimated with traditional sampling. Our efforts focus on coastal waters, where microplastics are predicted to have the greatest influence on marine life … Our findings show that sampling using nets with a 100 μm mesh resulted in the collection of 2.5-fold and 10-fold greater microplastic concentrations compared with using 333 and 500 μm meshes … These results elucidate that estimates of marine microplastic concentrations could currently be underestimated …” #Microplastics #PlasticWaste #SingleUsePlastic