even the high amount that we see is one piece of plastic every square ten feet or so. so even though there is a lot of plastic it is very much extended over huge areas, thousands of miles. >> uh-huh. so the best way to stop it on the surface is to be aware of it and stop dumping stuff in the ocean if we can avoid it. and what about below the surface in the area they're searching? what types of debris can be found on the ocean floor, erik? >> well, to be honest, we don't know enough about the ocean floor and about the type of debris there is. and really there was only one study that came out last year at the monterey bay aquarium in the west coast, which was a really good study. they went back to all the food extended they had from the submarine there, the auv, and they looked at all of this footage and just tried to see how much plastic there was.