Predicting the North Atlantic Garbage Patch

Results of the simulation with Nikolai Maximenko’s model. Shown is where the drifters, put uniformly into the world ocean and carried by the ocean currents, would end up after 10 years of simulation. The red patches show the biggest accumulation

In a study published in the prestigious journal Science, 22 years of data collected by undergraduate students aboard a sailing vessel has identified widespread floating plastic debris in the western North Atlantic comparable to the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” International Pacific Research Center (IPRC) senior researcher Nikolai Maximenko, a co-author on the paper, has developed a computer model that describes how converging surface currents cause the plastic to accumulate in such patches.
Read more about it in the Science abstract, in the IPRC press release (PDF), and at Ka Leo. Also, listen to the interview on Hawai‘i Public Radio.