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Shipping traffic can be a major source of tiny plastic particles floating in the sea, especially out in the open ocean. In a paper published in the scientific journal
Environmental Science & Technology, a team of German environmental geochemists based at the University of Oldenburg s Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment and led by Dr Barbara Scholz-Boettcher for the first time provides an overview of microplastics mass distribution in the North Sea.
The scientists found that most of the plastic particles in water samples taken from the German Bight, an area in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea which encompasses some of the world s busiest shipping lanes, originate from binders used in marine paints. Our hypothesis is that ships leave a kind of skid mark in the water which is of similar significance as a source of microplastics as tyre wear particles from cars are on land, Scholz-Boettcher says.