How is plastic debris in the ocean measured?
The most common way to measure floating plastic in the ocean is to collect it using very fine-meshed nets towed at the ocean surface from a ship. At SEA we have been measuring plastic debris using this method for more than 25 years. To collect data for research projects designed by students in our SEA Semester program, we tow a plankton net at the surface twice a day to collect biological organisms, as well as plastic and any other floating debris. Students sort through the net contents to hand-pick, count, and preserve all plastic samples collected during the tow. Since 1986 more than 6100 plankton net tows have been conducted in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea by more than 7000 undergraduate students and scientists at SEA.
