FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, DST-NRF Centre of Excellence, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa.
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, United Kingdom.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2020 Aug;157:111373. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111373. Epub 2020 Jun 12.
Beaches on Henderson Island, one of the Pitcairn Islands in the central South Pacific, have been reported to have some of the highest standing stocks of stranded plastic recorded. Surveys of floating debris at sea show that this is not related to high densities of plastic in the area. Only 19 macroplastic items were observed during 905 km of at-sea transects (0.5 items·km; 135 g·km). This low density confirms previous microplastic surveys which show that the Pitcairn group lies west of the South Pacific Gyre. Plastic loads on beaches at other islands in the Pitcairn group are not exceptional. The east coast of Henderson Island appears to be particularly effective at accumulating drifting debris, but many small plastic fragments on these beaches probably result from degradation in situ, so removing macroplastics will reduce the formation of microplastics.
亨德森岛位于南太平洋中部皮特凯恩群岛中，据报道，该岛的海滩上积聚了大量的搁浅塑料。对海上漂浮物的调查表明，这与该地区高密度的塑料无关。在 905 公里的海上横截线上仅观察到 19 个大型塑料物品（0.5 个·公里；135 克·公里）。这种低密度证实了之前的微塑料调查结果，即皮特凯恩群岛位于南太平洋环流以西。皮特凯恩群岛其他岛屿上的海滩的塑料负荷也并不例外。亨德森岛的东海岸似乎特别有效地积聚漂流的碎屑，但这些海滩上的许多小块塑料碎片可能是就地降解的结果，因此清除大型塑料将减少微塑料的形成。
