There are several non-profit organizations working to remove floating plastic from the Great Pacific Patch. The largest, the Ocean Cleanup Foundation in the Netherlands, has developed a net specifically intended to collect and concentrate marine debris that is pulled over the sea surface by wind and currents. Once the net is full, a ship brings the contents to land for proper disposal.
dr. Helm and other scientists warn that such nets pose a threat to marine life, including Neuston. While adjustments have been made to the design of the net to reduce bycatch, Dr. Helmet that any large scale removal of plastic from the patch could pose a threat to the Neuton residents.
“When it comes to figuring out what to do with the plastic that’s already in the ocean, I think we need to be very careful,” she said. The results of her research “really emphasize the need to study the open ocean before attempting to manipulate, modify, clean up, or extract minerals from it.”
Laurent Lebreton, an oceanographer with the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, disagreed with Dr. Helmet.
“It’s too early to draw any conclusions about how we should respond to that study,” he said. “You have to take into account the effects of plastic pollution on other species. With our system, we collect several tons of plastic every week: plastic that affects the environment.”
Plastic in the ocean threatens marine life, killing more than a million seabirds each year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals, according to UNESCO. Everything from fish to whales can get entangled, and animals often mistake it for food and eventually starve to death with a stomach full of plastic.
Ocean plastic that doesn’t end up suffocating an albatross or ensnaring an elephant seal eventually breaks down into microplastics, which penetrate every branch of the food web and are nearly impossible to remove from the environment.
Everyone agrees on one thing: we need to stop the flow of plastic into the ocean.
‘We have to turn off the tap,’ said Mr Lecomte.