Over 170 trillion plastic particles floating in oceans, North Atlantic sea most affected: Study

World's oceans have more than 171 trillion pieces of plastic, a new study said, citing a "rapid and unprecedented" increase in plastic pollution in the oceans.

A team of international scientists analysed the samples collected over thecourse of four decades – between 1979 and 2019 – from the Antlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans as well as the Mediterranean Sea.

"Today's global abundance is estimated at approximately 82-358 trillion plastic particles weighing 1.1-4.9 million tonnes. We observed no clear detectable trend until 1990, a fluctuating but stagnant trend from then until 2005, and a rapid increase until the present," the study, published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, read.

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Scientists warned that the rate at which plastics enter the oceans could increase by around 2.6 times between now and 2040 without immediate intervention. "This observed acceleration of plastic densities in the world's oceans, also reported for beaches around the globe, demands urgent international policy interventions," they wrote.

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Lisa Erdle, director of research and innovation at the 5 Gyres Institute and an author of the report, pointed out that only 9 per cent of global plastics are recycled each year. She said that once plastic gets into the ocean, it doesn't decompose but breaks down into tiny pieces. "These particles then are really not easily cleaned up, we're stuck with them," she told CNN.

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"The ocean is a complex place. There are lots of ocean currents, there are changes over time due to weather and due to conditions on the ground," Erdle said.

North Atlantic sea most plastic polluted: Study

The researchers said that the highest concentration of ocean plastic is in the North Atlantic sea. But they also admitted that more data is still needed for areas including the Mediterranean Sea, the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic and South Pacific to figure out the exact extent of the crisis.

"This research opened my eyes to how challenging plastic in the ocean is to measure and characterise and underscores the need for real solutions to the problem," Win Cowger, a research scientist at Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research in California and a study author, said in an official statement.

(With inputs from agencies)

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