Yet another giant garbage patch has been discovered in the North Atlantic Ocean located between 22 and 38 degrees north latitude. A two-decade study, conducted by the Sea Education Association (SEA) and Woods Hole Oceanographic, found that there was a plastic density of 200,000 pieces of debris per sq.km (518,000 per sq.mile) in the Atlantic, comparable to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
The magnitude of the new garbage patch is mind-boggling, and it was previously undiscovered due to winds ‘hiding’ the plastics from view.
“I had a eureka moment on a flat, calm day," explained Giora Proskurowski, an oceanography faculty scientist with the Sea Education Association in a media teleconference. "When I looked off the deck of the ship, I saw hundreds and hundreds of little tiny pieces of plastic floating at the surface that I'd never seen before."
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