A piece of plastic scooped from the North Atlantic Ocean. It shows the tell-tale bite marks of a fish. A new study estimates how much plastic floats throughout the world’s oceans — trash that puts many marine creatures at risk.

The researchers found that more than half of the weight of all ocean plastics is made up of such tiny pieces. This discovery concerned the team because smaller particles have a greater surface area. This allows them to absorb more pollution per unit weight than larger pieces will.

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