Opinion:
A. J. Tucker
If there really is that much plastic floating on the surface of the ocean, I would think not only would it be beneficial to marine life, but it would be profitable to set up giant skimmers along the Gulf Stream. It wouldn't take much, two buoys with a net stretching between them, a few feet in the water, a few feet above, maybe a hundred feet long, LED lights with a solar panel so boats could see them at night, a tennis net in the water if you will, only smaller weaves to catch the tiny stuff. The ocean is basically a giant water pump, just like a swimming pool or an aquarium, we might need to help filter it. If a company did this and put hundreds of these in high current areas, they could drive a boat to the locations when they are full, pick the net up and tow it to a location for recycling, let the plastic come to the nets, since everything floats, it wouldn't be very difficult to harvest.
Even if it didn't clean it up 100%, it couldn't hurt and it would be free recycling, maybe it would catch on and several companies would do this to cash in on the value of the plastic. After a while, the ocean surface would become clean, and just like cycles and supply and demand, the eye soars of these nets would become less and less as the amounts of plastic diminished.
