Marcus Eriksen, Sherri Mason, Stiv Wilson, Carolyn Box, Ann Zellers, 
William Edwards, Hannah Farley, Stephen Amato, Microplastic pollution in 
the surface waters of the Laurentian Great Lakes, Marine Pollution 
Bulletin, Available online 25 October 2013, ISSN 0025-326X, 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2013.10.007.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X13006097)
Abstract: Neuston samples were collected at 21 stations during an ∼700 
nautical mile (∼1300 km) expedition in July 2012 in the Laurentian Great 
Lakes of the United States using a 333 μm mesh manta trawl and analyzed 
for plastic debris. Although the average abundance was approximately 
43,000 microplastic particles/km2, station 20, downstream from two major 
cities, contained over 466,000 particles/km2, greater than all other 
stations combined. SEM analysis determined nearly 20% of particles less 
than 1 mm, which were initially identified as microplastic by visual 
observation, were aluminum silicate from coal ash. Many microplastic 
particles were multi-colored spheres, which were compared to, and are 
suspected to be, microbeads from consumer products containing 
microplastic particles of similar size, shape, texture and composition. 
The presence of microplastics and coal ash in these surface samples, 
which were most abundant where lake currents converge, are likely from 
nearby urban effluent and coal burning power plants.