Plastic soup in the Mediterranean Sea

Researchers at the Universidad de Cádiz in Spain measured concentrations of floating plastic throughout the Mediterranean Sea to assess whether this basin can be regarded as a great accumulation region of plastic debris.
They found that the average density of plastic, as well as its frequency of occurrence, are comparable to the accumulation zones described for the five subtropical ocean gyres. Plastic debris in the Mediterranean surface waters was dominated by millimeter-sized fragments, but showed a higher proportion of large plastic objects than that present in oceanic gyres, reflecting the closer connection with pollution sources. An article about the research is published in PLOS ONE.
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