Now the Atlantic

The findings of a two-decade-long study at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, Oregon, US were presented recently and throw up more examples of how human refuse is polluting our oceans
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The work is the conclusion of the longest and most extensive record of plastic marine debris in any ocean basin.
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Scientists and students from the SEA collected plastic and marine debris in fine mesh nets that were towed behind a research vessel.
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We know that many marine organisms are consuming these plastics and we know this has a bad effect on seabirds in particular
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The nets dragged along were half-in and half-out of the water, picking up debris and small marine organisms from the sea surface.
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The researchers carried out 6,100 tows in areas of the Caribbean and the North Atlantic - off the coast of the US.
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More than half of these expeditions revealed floating pieces of plastic on the water surface.
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These were pieces of low-density plastic that are used to make many consumer products, including plastic bags.

.Dr Lavender Law said that the pieces of plastic she and her team picked up in the nets were generally very small - up to 1cm across.
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"We found a region fairly far north in the Atlantic Ocean where this debris appears to be concentrated and remains over long periods of time," she explained.
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"More than 80% of the plastic pieces we collected in the tows were found between 22 and 38 degrees north. So we have a latitude for [where this] rubbish seems to accumulate," she said.
 
BBC - Victoria Gill