"Scientists have discovered an area of the North Atlantic Ocean where plastic debris accumulates.

The region is said to compare with the well-documented 'great Pacific garbage patch'.

Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association told the BBC that the issue of plastics had been 'largely ignored' in the Atlantic.

She announced the findings of a two-decade-long study at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Portland, US.

The work is the conclusion of the longest and most extensive record of plastic marine debris in any ocean basin."

Victoria Gill reports for BBC News February 24, 2010. [2]