Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 17 March 1972:
Vol. 175. no. 4027, pp. 1240 - 1241
DOI: 10.1126/science.175.4027.1240
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Plastics on the Sargasso Sea Surface

Edward J. Carpenter 1 and K. L. Smith Jr. 1

1 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543

Plastic particles, in concentrations averaging 3500 pieces and 290 grams per square kilometer, are widespread in the western Sargasso Sea. Pieces are brittle, apparently due to the weathering of the plasticizers, and many are in a pellet shape about 0.25 to 0.5 centimeters in diameter. The particles are surfaces for the attachment of diatoms and hydroids. Increasing production of plastics, combined with present waste-disposal practices, will undoubtedly lead to increases in the concentration of these particles. Plastics could be a source of some of the polychlorinated biphenyls recently observed in oceanic organisms.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Plastic Particles in Surface Waters of the Northwestern Atlantic.
J. B. Colton Jr., B. R. Burns, and F. D. Knapp, (1974)
Science 185, 491-497
   PDF »
The Coastal Challenge.
D. L. Inman, D. L. Inman, and B. M. Brush (1973)
Science 181, 20-32
   PDF »
Polystyrene Spherules in Coastal Waters.
E. Carpenter, E. J. Carpenter, S. J. Anderson, G. R. Harvey, H. P. Miklas, and B. B. Peck (1972)
Science 178, 749-750
   Abstract »    PDF »
On Carpenter and Smith.
E. J. Carpenter, K. L. Smith Jr., G. R. Harvey, and H. P. Miklas (1972)
Science 177, 85
   PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)