Plastic litter taints the sea surface, even in the Arctic

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-10/awih-plt102215.php

Public Release: 22-Oct-2015
Plastic litter taints the sea surface, even in the Arctic
For the first time, AWI researchers survey litter on the sea surface at such high latitudes
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research

In a new study, researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) show for the first time that marine litter can even be found at the sea surface of Arctic waters. Though it remains unclear how the litter made it so far north, it is likely to pose new problems for local marine life, the authors report on the online portal of the scientific journal Polar Biology. Plastic has already been reported from stomachs of resident seabirds and Greenland sharks.

Plastic waste finds its way into the ocean, and from there to the farthest reaches of the planet - even as far as the Arctic. This was confirmed in one of the first litter surveys conducted north of the Arctic Circle, carried out by an international research team from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and Belgium's Laboratory for Polar Ecology. The researchers presented their results in an article released yesterday on the online portal of the journal Polar Biology.

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