It would be useful to actually try to do this in an enclosed environment, and see what happens with regards to the sealife. Take a large container of ocean surface water, dump it in a tank, and then try some proposed filtering method.
My assumption is that the effects on the sealife will be minimal. You’re not going to scoop up all the sealife (just as you won’t actually filter out all the plastic, of course), and what remains will most likely rapidly breed themselves back to their former density in, what, weeks? Months?
Filter again in six months or a year. Allow the population to strengthen again. Filter again, etc.
As we’ve seen with several fish conservancy projects, populations can rebound. Much more so if they’re tiny and have short lives.
Clearly I haven’t studied the problem in depth, but the article seems to just assume that catching organisms is de facto bad, without question whether, a year forward, the life that remained will be happier and healthier with the plastic removed.
