"80% of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to come from land-based sources, with the remaining 20% coming from boats and other marine sources" "Most of the debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups."
"These percentages vary by region, however. A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, due largely to ocean current dynamics and increased fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean."
More info about the patch:
"In reality, the majority of these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes. The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean."
You are confusing pieces of plastic with the overall amount of plastic. Your own source even states:
A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Here is another National Geographic article where they go into more detail clarifying the difference:
Microplastics make up 94 percent of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch. But that only amounts to eight percent of the total tonnage. As it turns out, of the 79,000 metric tons of plastic in the patch, most of it is abandoned fishing gear—not plastic bottles or packaging drawing headlines today.
A comprehensive new study by Slat’s team of scientists, published in Scientific Reports Thursday, concluded that the 79,000 tons was four to 16 times larger than has been previously estimated for the patch. The study also found that fishing nets account for 46 percent of the trash, with the majority of the rest composed of other fishing industry gear, including ropes, oyster spacers, eel traps, crates, and baskets. Scientists estimate that 20 percent of the debris is from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
Fishing nets are nearly half. As you can see from the additional context I provided, "the majority of the rest [is] composed of other fishing industry gear."
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u/nuniabidness Aug 12 '21
Not the majority, but still sickening:
"80% of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is estimated to come from land-based sources, with the remaining 20% coming from boats and other marine sources" "Most of the debris comes from plastic bags, bottle caps, plastic water bottles, and Styrofoam cups."
"These percentages vary by region, however. A 2018 study found that synthetic fishing nets made up nearly half the mass of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, due largely to ocean current dynamics and increased fishing activity in the Pacific Ocean."
More info about the patch:
"In reality, the majority of these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called microplastics. Even satellite imagery doesn’t show a giant patch of garbage. The microplastics of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch can simply make the water look like a cloudy soup. This soup is intermixed with larger items, such as fishing gear and shoes. The seafloor beneath the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may also be an underwater trash heap. Oceanographers and ecologists recently discovered that about 70% of marine debris actually sinks to the bottom of the ocean."
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/