Because of all the traffic on this post, I wanted to clarify
that I am completely convinced that there is lots of plastic in
the North Pacific Gyre, and that it is a serious environmental
problem. My issue with the plastic:plankton ratio is that it
doesn’t accurately measure the amount of plastic. The Algalita
Marine Research Foundation is great at raising awareness of the
problem of trash in the North Pacific Gyre. They’ve tirelessly
lobbied for political change, coined terms like “plastic soup,”
worked in the schools, and are sailing the Junk raft to Hawaii
as we speak. However, as part of their quest to make the
enormity of the plastic problem understood, they’ve been
claiming that there is six time more plastic than plankton in
the North Pacific Gyre. The 6:1 ratio has appeared in PBS, The
Seattle Times, and has been repeated all over the internet.
Though I admire Algalita’s work, the 6:1 plastic:plankton ratio
is deeply flawed. Worse, it is flawed in a direction that
undermines Algalita’s credibility: It