A new report shows the rapid increase of plastic pollution spreading across the world's oceans, jumping from an estimated 16 trillion pieces in 2005 to more than 171 trillion pieces of plastic today.

To find out whether that was taking place, the researchers collected over 100 plastic debris items from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre in late 2018/early 2019.

The North Pacific Gyre, or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, spans over 500,000 square miles, or about twice the size of Texas, and contains everything from large debris to microplastics that have ...

Debris collected from the North Pacific Gyre sits on the deck of the KWAI, a ship operated by Sausalito-based Ocean Voyages Institute, in Sausalito on Tuesday, July 26, 2022.

Sausalito-based recovery ship KWAI collected over 96 tons of plastic materials from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch after a month-long voyage.

There are five main oceanic gyres, and the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is where the best-known garbage patch lies. Unlike all other seas, the Sargasso has no land boundaries.

In the subtropical gyre of the North Pacific Ocean, home to the North Pacific Garbage Patch – better known as the "plastic continent" – the concentration of small-sized plastic debris has ...