London, April 16 (Xinhua) -- The amount of plastic waste floating in the North Atlantic Ocean has increased significantly in the past few decades and this trend is likely to continue in the future, a study by the British Society of Marine Biology said on the 16th.

The Society of Marine Biology and Plymouth University researchers carried out the study, the data mainly from a device called the "plankton continuum recorder". Since 1957, researchers have towed the device more than 6.5 million nautical miles (12 million kilometers) across the North Atlantic Ocean, recording how much plastic became entangled in the process.

The amount of plastic waste in the North Atlantic increased significantly between 1957 and 2016, especially for larger items such as plastic bags, ropes and fishing nets, the research team reports in the new issue of the British journal Nature Communications.

The study found that the number of plastic entanglements on the recorders has increased about 10-fold since 2000, and that fishing-related plastic entanglements, such as fishing nets, have been the biggest growth factor over the past 20 years, with the highest incidence occurring in the southern part of the North Atlantic.

Lead author Dr Claire Oster, of the Society for Marine Biology, said the data showed the importance of long-term observations, and that such work was valuable for in-depth analysis of the impact of plastic litter in the ocean.

The team called on countries to do more to reduce this type of environmental pollution in light of mounting evidence that the amount of plastic litter in the oceans is growing.

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